Dawn at Hakubo High
by atlantiandragoness
Summary: High school can be tough, but when you're a member of the Akatsuki club, whose goal is to stir up trouble, things are bound to get crazy.
1. Interruptions

Itachi Uchiha was probably one of the most, if not **the** most, popular guys in school. Currently a junior, he was usually recognizable by his light black hair, pulled back into a long ponytail, minus the bangs he let hang in his face, and the square, wire frame glasses he always wore on the end of his nose, their lenses tinted a deep shape of red.

He never did explain the reason for wearing glasses, other than he thought they made him look cool, and at times, when needed, quite menacing when he pushed them all the way up, turning his onyx eyes a demonic red.

This was one of those times, as he tried to convince some random guy, who was pissed at him because his girlfriend thought he was hot, to back off.

"Hey Itachi what have you gotten into now?" someone piped in just as the guy had grabbed onto Itachi's black jacket, Itachi showing no signs of concern. Both men turned to a tall junior who stood there, arms crossed, a guitar strapped to his back.

"Kisame, you don't need to interfere," Itachi murmured.

Now, Kisame might not have been as popular as Itachi, but he was just as well known, mostly as Itachi's bodyguard.

The other guy let go of Itachi and stepped back, because even though some people would pick a fight with Itachi, _no one_ was willing to challenge Kisame Hoshigaki. He may only be 18, a year older than his friend, but he was one of the biggest guys at school, probably from lugging that heavy guitar case everywhere.

But the instrument wasn't the only thing that made Kisame easy to spot. He was little bit darker than the others, kind of a tannish grey skin color with three weird triangular birthmarks under his each eye, plus his spiky hair was a dark teal.

Itachi adjusted his glasses, moving them back down his nose as he watched the guy retreat down the hall, fuming and yelling several colorful words.

"I wonder if he's been talking to Hidan," Kisame joked, but as usual, it just went over Itachi's head.

"That wasn't necessary, you know," he said, straightening out his jacket and wiping off any dust that may have collected on his clothes.

"I didn't even do anything, I knew you could've handled it. Not my fault he chickened out. Anyway, Leader says there's a club meeting after school."

"There's always an after school meeting lately. What's the point? We barely do anything _during_ school as it is."

Kisame shrugged and went back to his original mission before he had run into the club's president, which was lunch, Itachi quietly tagging along.

"So, did you tell anyone else?"

"No." Kisame replied, pushing open the cafeteria door. "I just happened to run into you on my way to lunch, or else you wouldn't have known until now, that was my original plan."

The black haired junior groaned, knowing how serious Kisame tended to be when it came to lunch. He didn't like it when something came between him and it.

"So did Leader tell you what the meeting's about?" Itachi asked once the two had progressed through the agonizingly slow lunch line.

Kisame shook his head, sitting down at a nearby table and Itachi across from him, the freshman who had previously occupied it leapt from their seats the moment they saw the upperclassmen heading in their direction.

Itachi groaned again, a little frustrated with his friend at the moment, but that was about to change."Hey guys!" someone piped up, sliding their tray down next to Itachi's and taking a seat behind it. "What's up?"

The two blinked, caught slightly off guard by the sudden interruption. "What's wrong? Cat got your tongue, un?" "Hello Deidara," Kisame said, still a little surprised by his sudden appearance.

Deidara Kibaku was a sophomore and also very popular. He was blond with a very unique hairstyle, a pony tail set towards the top of his head while the rest hung loose in the back, and a bang pulled over where it covered the left side of his face. The look was considered slightly feminine, and on a few occasions he would be mistaken for a girl by some random naive person, who would soon regret opening their mouths when Deidara would explode after the assumption was made.

"So, I hear we have another meeting today, un," Deidara said, flexing his hands so that weird patterns the lines formed were clearly visible on each palm, somewhat resembling a mouth.

"Did Leader tell you too?" Itachi quietly asked, his frustration slowly shifting to him.

"No."

"Then how do you know?" Kisame inquired.

He smiled and dramatically exclaimed, pumping his fist into the air, "Through the power of gossip, un!"

The juniors face-faulted.

"Oy, Deidara, are you being a drama queen again?" someone asked calmly, sitting across from Deidara, a bored expression planted on his face. Deidara glared at the redheaded new comer, who merely took a bite out of his sandwich. The other two, however, were glad for the company of someone sane.

"I'm not a drama queen, Sasori!" the blond protested.

Sasori shrugged. He was also a sophomore, full name Sasori Akasuna, and one of the shorter students in their school. He and Deidara were the school's local artists, both contributing members of the art society.

"Hey Sasori, meeting after school," Kisame blurted out before the two sophomores could get into one of their debates, usually about art or anything else they could think of.

He adopted an amused smile. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Because we had one yesterday, un."

"Yesterday was Sunday," Sasori corrected.

"Fine! Friday then!"

The red head smugly smiled at Deidara's obvious frustration, which fueled the fire.

And that's when the argument commenced, even if it was basically about nothing. Itachi, who didn't want to suffer from another headache caused by their constant bickering, subtlety cleared his throat to get their attention and gave both teens 'the look'. Deidara 'hmphed' and crossed his arms, still fuming.

"He started it, un!" he protested, but both of them were silent.

The quartet got into a normal conversation after that point, still with a few quick banters between Deidara and Sasori, but that was expected anyway. Their main focus was the club meeting after school, but because the president was so secretive there really wasn't much to say, and for several minutes the table was quiet.

Then someone else arrived at the table.

The four of them seemed a bit surprised at the new arrival. He was a member of their club, but he was the loner of the group and rarely talked to them outside of meetings, which is why it took them a minute to realize he had the same lunch period.

"Zetsu?" Kisame spoke. Zetsu Haetorisou looked over with bright yellow eyes. His complexion was naturally tan, a few odd freckles off to the right side of his face and gray-green hair. The sophomore seemed bewildered and out of breath, as if he had been running from something.

"Help," he said quietly, though with a pleading tone. "It won't leave me alone!"

"What is 'it'?" Sasori inquired.

Before he could answer, someone came up from behind him and sat down to Zetsu's left, grinning happily.

"That."

--

Note: This is Hakubo High's Akatsuki reuploaded, after it got deleted. I'll be posting the chapters every 2 to 3 days until I'm caught up (so as not to draw too much attention). Thanks to everyone supported me when this happened.

I went back and _hopefully_ fixed any typos I made previously. But, to prevent this from getting deleted again, is there anyone who'd like to be a Beta for this story?


	2. Tobi

The lunch table had once again been compromised by a new comer, but this was one no one, other than Zetsu, had seen before. He had short, spiky black hair and eyes of the same color, or 'eye' rather. His left eye was obscured by bandages wrapped about his head. He had on an orange cap with a black dot and swirls radiating from it half on top of the messy hair. The stranger gave off a happy and bubbly aura that just screamed freshman.

Zetsu sighed, slamming his head against the cafeteria table in frustration.

"Why'd you do that, Zetsu?" the stranger asked. The sophomore looked up at him, narrowing his eyes, then sat up and spoke.

"Guys, this is Tobi Iiko. He's a nine-grader and for some reason he keeps following me around."

"Because you're my sophomore buddy!" Tobi grinned.

"There's no such thing as a sophomore buddy," Sasori interjected, slightly confused. Tobi looked over, apparently noticing for the first time there were others at the table.

"Oh, hi friends of Zetsu!" he said, leaving his _buddy_ alone for a moment -much to the relief of the latter- and got up greet the four older students. "I'm Tobi!"

"So we gathered," Itachi blankly replied, not even looking at the underclassman.

"Who are you all?"

Looking about, Kisame decided to speak for the others. "I'm Kisame, this is Itachi, and those two are Sasori and Deidara," he said respectively. Tobi grinned a huge, some-what disturbing grin and shook each of their hands, rambling on and on about how glad he was to meet them. When he came over to Deidara, the blonde snatched his hand away from Tobi and glared evilly.

Tobi directed his next comment to Zetsu, but everyone else heard it anyway. "Deidara's cranky. Is it her time of the month?"

Insert eye twitch from Deidara.

Kisame and Sasori snickered while Zetsu hit his palm against his forehead and Itachi merely looked on with a bored expression, all four of them knowing what was coming next.

"I. AM. A. BOY!" he yelled, exploding on poor naive Tobi, who ducked behind Zetsu in fear. A few random people turned at the outburst, but quickly went back to whatever they'd been doing before. Deidara sat down again, huffing a bit as a way to cool himself down.

"S-sorry," the freshman muttered, still cowering in fear for his life. Deidara 'hmphed' him, adding a look that could've killed Death himself, and took a bite out of the lunch everyone else had forgotten about.

"Tobi, I think you should leave now," Zetsu advised, secretly praying he'd go. He did, yelling cheerful goodbyes to everyone like nothing happened. In reality, Tobi wasn't even in that lunch period, he'd had just followed the green-haired teen for lack of anything better to do. His real class at the moment was study hall.Zetsu sighed, shaking his head. Then, without another word, stood up and disappeared somewhere into the vast lunchroom amongst the crowd.

"Interesting," Kisame muttered under his breath, deciding to eat the rest of his sandwich.

"As will be after school," Itachi mused.

"Why?"

"Well, after that previous 'encounter', I have a strong suspicion that Tobi may show up at the meeting."

"But, he's not a member," Kisame commented. "Why should he be?"

"I think I get what Itachi's saying," Sasori said. "He may not be a member, but he _is_ intent on following Zetsu around. It's likely that he may follow him to our meeting as well, if he's as naive and simple-minded as he appears." Itachi simply nodded in response.

"Great," Deidara hissed, adopting a blank, yet oddly disturbed expression.

"Look at it this way Deidara, at least he'll get your gender right at your next run-in," the redhead told him with a slight smile.

"Not helping, un." He got up to throw his tray in the trash bin, but went past the table without any intent of sitting back down. "I need to go make art," Deidara said as he passed and exited the cafeteria into the somewhat empty halls.

"Is he gonna be okay?" the blue haired member of the group asked, not quite remembering Deidara ever being quite this mad before.

"Yeah. Deidara conveys his anger by being destructive. Once he's satisfied that he's done with his 'art', as he calls it, he'll be back to his usual annoying self." Sasori sighed. "So I'm gonna enjoy my moments of Deidara-free peace before I have to go to next period with him."

--

Meanwhile, Deidara found himself storming down the hall with no clear destination or outlet for his anger. The art room, which usually hosted most of his works of art, was currently locked due to the absence of the art teacher. He slammed his back against the nearby lockers and let out a deep breath, staring at the door to the cafeteria. A moment later the door swung open and out came the freshman he'd just met. That same person began heading down the hallway, specifically, straight for Deidara.

Tobi stopped in front of him, a sheepish look on his face this time. "Um, hi Deidara. Sorry about a minute ago," he told him, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

"You should be, un," Deidara told him, obviously not in the forgiving mood.

"It's just, well, your hair reminded me of a girl. It's so pretty and all..."

"It is rather lovely, isn't it," Deidara mused, running a hand through his bang. The compliment seemed to distract him from his anger for the moment as his face took on a pleased look. He followed his fingers through the golden locks until they brought Tobi back into his sights. The scowl returned. Tobi 'eeped' slightly, fearful of the blonde's rage, which gave him an idea.

"Tobi, would you be willing to do me a favor if I forgave you?"

"Yes," he replied, voice full of nervousness.

A grin crept up Deidara's face. "Good, un. Then I need your help with a little 'art project'."


	3. Planning

"Um, Deidara, exactly what am I doing again?" Tobi asked as the sophomore pushed the reluctant boy down the hallway.

He sighed. "Listen, un. I'm not explaining it again. You are going to ask a custodian to open the art room, and tell him you left something in there earlier. I already told you this, do you have ADD, un?"

"Maybe." Deidara gave him a harsh shove forward.

"Okay, look, there's one of the custodians," Deidara told him, pointing out the school's janitor who seemed to be half working, half listening to an Mp3 player. "Go ask him!" He shoved Tobi again, this time letting the freshman go on by himself.

Tobi glanced over his shoulder. "Why can't you do it?"

"Because, _I _am not allowed to be in the art room by myself anymore due to some fiasco last year." He sighed, looking up in some random direction. "No one appreciates fine art anymore, un."

"Uh-huh," Tobi murmured, deciding to make his move while the temperamental blond was distracted. "Um, sir," He timidly asked, poking the worker lightly on the shoulder incase he couldn't hear him over the polka music he was blasting. The janitor pulled his headphones out, the accordion now screaming out, and gave Tobi a what-the-hell-do-you-want look.

Tobi winced at the added volume, then spoke. "Um, sir, do you mind opening the art room for me? I left my project in there and I really need to get it before next period."

"Eh, you're problem, not mine," he responded, returning the headset to his ears.

"Please!" Tobi begged, his visible eye growing wide as he put on a pout so cute, it put begging puppies to shame. "I really, really, really, really need that project or my teacher will fail me. Pleeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssssssseeeeeeeeeee...etc etc."

It was unsure if it was Tobi's irresistible face, or the long plea that miraculously over shot the janitor's music that finally won him over. Nevertheless, the custodian gave a frustrated sigh of defeat, pulled a single key out the cornucopia that hung from his belt loop, and tossed it to the freshman.

"Here," he said. "Just leave me alone." Without another word, he stomped off in a huff, clearly with no attempts on retrieving the key later.

Tobi grinned eagerly and turned back to where Deidara was hiding, holding up his small golden trophy. The blond stared back in shock, then walked up to Tobi and snatched it from him in the process.

"I did good, right sempai?" he asked.

"Uh... sure- wait, what did you just call me?"

"Sempai," he repeated, offering no explanation.

"Okay. Well, I wasn't expecting him to just hand you the key and leave, but this is much better, un."

"Why?"

"Because _now_ I can get into the art room whenever I please, un." Deidara's mouth twisted into an evil, sadistic grin that matched his expression.

Tobi backed away slowly. "So, you're not mad at me anymore and I can go, right?"

"Yeah, whatever, un," Deidara murmured, waving him away.

Tobi bolted.

--

The blond artist was soon found creeping down the hallway on which his destination was located. He briefly glanced at an overhead security camera installed to watch the hall. The lens cap he'd placed on it prior to his last art project was still in place.

Obviously the school didn't care enough to remove it.

Grinning to himself, Deidara made his way to the door and inserted the key into the lock. _Perfect_, he thought as a small click sounded and the door swung open. He walked in and closed the door behind him so no curious people would come by to see why the door was open, which also prevented him from turning the lights on. He let his eyes take a moment to adjust to the darkness before he carried on with his mission.

He pushed a desk next to a cabinet that nearly reached floor to ceiling, save for a one foot gap. Deidara pulled himself on top the desk and reached over the top of the wardrobe until his hand hit something. Smiling, he pulled out an old box that barely fit into the space and jumped down. He set the box onto a table and began rummaging through its contents, tossing around several papers with blueprints before he found what he wanted.

The evil grin returned as he stuffed the desired items into the bag he had been carrying, slung it back over his shoulder, and put everything back into the box. Deidara closed it and hopped back onto the desk where he could slid it back into it's hiding place, then put the desk back into it's original position. He peered out the window on the door to make sure the hall was empty before he made his exit. He carefully locked the door behind him, pocketed the key, and nonchallantly made his way off the hall before anyone even noticed.

--

When the late bell rang for fifth period study hall, Sasori was the first to notice a vacancy in the seat Deidara usually occupied, although that was probably due to the fact Deidara usually sat right next to him.

The redhead sighed. Even though he wasn't going to into trouble because the study hall teacher failed to check attendance everyday, or monitor the students at all, there was no doubt in Sasori's mind that wherever the blond was, he was _causing_ trouble.

On cue, there was a rap at the door and the bang covered face of Deidara peered in from the other side, gesturing for Sasori to come forth. With an added sigh, he got up and simply walked out the door.

As usual, the teacher didn't care.

He walked out into the hallway where Deidara was waiting and looked up at him through half lidded eyes. "Whatever it is I want no part in it," Sasori bluntly stated.

"But it's _art, _un!" Deidara whined. "I thought you liked art, Sasori no Danna!"

"I do, but you don't know what art is."

"Yes I do, un," Deidara huffed. "But I don't have time to argue about it right now!"

Now he had Sasori's attention. It was a rare occasion where Deidara passed up one of their many, many arguments. "Okay, what did you do now?"

"Nothing, un!" he said with a slight insulted tone to his voice. A sly grin grew and he added "Yet."

Rolling his eyes Sasori calmly asked "And what do you want me to do?" in the usual monotone his voice took on. Deidara tapped his index finger against his lip to drag it out, inwardly laughing at Sasori's growing impatience.

"Alright," he said, finally cutting the tension "I need your help rigging something up so I can trigger it at a distance by strings. I have to admit, you are better at that kind of thing than me, un."

He shrugged. "I've got nothing better to do this period. Even if I don't support your idea of art."

"Then maybe this'll prove to you that art is a bang, un."


	4. Art Project

"Hurry up Sasori!" a slightly irritated Deidara yelled from outside the auditorium. When he received no response, he huffed and leaned against the wall, gently banging his head against the vertical surface.

Moments later, Sasori calmly moved out into the hallway, standing in front of the blond for his response.

"Took you long enough, un."

Sasori remained silent and handed him a thin thread wrapped around a penny (that he'd just found on the way out) so Deidara couldn't loose track of it. "Patience is a virtue, Deidara," he said in a mocking tone.

"Like _you_ have room to talk, Mr. Impatient, un!" The shorter sophomore only shrugged.

"Well, everything's set up for your _art,_" Sasori told him, stressing art in such a way that showed his difference in opinion. Deidara peaked around the corner into the auditorium, which was the lucky host of his new project.

A first glance told that nothing was out of order, but in reality, clinging to the walls like spider webs were a long chain of needle-thin threads. Sasori had strung them up in a way that they wouldn't be in anyone's way, but also functional to his friend's purposes. They were also positioned that no one would see any of the strings unless they looked directly at them at the right angle, watching the individual lengths capture the light as it came into contact, yet even then it was hard to see them.

Deidara stared in awe at how well Sasori had set it up, but was determined not to let the redhead know this. "Oh, thanks, I guess, un," he said slowly, his face blank and unreadable.

"Uh-huh..." he murmured in response, though odd behavior wasn't something uncommon for Deidara. "Well, just give that thread your holding a good tug and everything should set off as planned. Exactly what are you planning, if I may ask?"

"I'm going to liberate the students of this school, un."

"Liberate?" He sighed. "I always knew you were insane."

"I am not, un! The school always calls on those stupid assemblies that nobody cares about, and pretty much bores the student body to death. I'm just going to... _interrupt_ that process today."

"That settles it, I'm not going."

"You never go, un."

The actual case was that Sasori had no idea the school was holding one of their assemblies during sixth period, he hadn't been paying attention to the morning announcements, but what Deidara had said was true. He always managed to find a teacher who'd let him hang out in their class for the duration of the presentations.

The bell rung and interrupted his thoughts as the halls began to fill with high schoolers all heading in the same direction, all bearing the same less-than-enthusiastic expressions.

"Time for the fireworks," the blond stated as he rubbed his palms together with a manic look in his eyes. The half-alseep eyes of his friend rolled in response and began to drift away as Sasori turned to leave. "No Sasori no Danna! You must stay, un!"

The eyes rolled again, but he obeyed and came back to watch the events play out, though mostly out of boredom.

--

Once the auditorium had been filled in by the students for the first wave of the assembly, the principal of the school, Tsunade Bakuto, a blond, noticeably large breasted woman, with an odd, diamond shaped birthmark in the center of her forehead and her hair in two adjacent ponytails, took the stage. She settled herself behind the podium and faced the students who were still talking. The assistant principal Shizune Hosa, a quiet woman with short black hair, silently stood in the background.

"Alright settle down!" she yelled out over the noise. There was no need for a microphone, as Tsunade was known for being quite loud when she wanted to be. The teenagers hushed themselves and awaited whatever she had to say to them.

"Alright students, as you know, the school district requires these assemblies every so often, or else I wouldn't be doing this right now, so you all are going to listen to what I'm about to tell you whether you like it or not." The principal sighed, and readjusted some papers that were sitting on the podium. "Today-"

She didn't get another word out because Deidara, still watching from outside, yanked on the string and set off a loud explosion. A small firecracker launched through the far end of the stage, blowing up a second later in a beautiful array of reds, blues, greens, yellows, and whites, only to fade as soon as it appeared. The students stared in awe and shock, mostly the later. As the brilliant colors faded, the smoke the came as a result did not, and drifted up to the ceiling where it set off the sprinkler system.

The students decided it was a good time to exit before the got soaked. On the other hand, their principal simple stood there in the downpour, fuming. Shizune scrambled out and held a plastic notebook over their heads as some protection. Tsunade glared in the general direction of the door, currently flooded with wet teenagers escaping the artificial rain, and yelled out.

"DEIDARA!"

--

The blond's single visible blue eye went wide.

"Shit!" he cursed, and grabbed Sasori by the arm, whisking the two of them down the hall. "Run for it!"

--

Huffing, Deidara and Sasori collasped in the back of the art room, (which Deidara had reopened with his pilfered key) out of view of anyone peeking through the door. He locked it from the inside just to make sure she wouldn't come in looking for them.

"You're gonna get us both killed one day," Sasori scolded. "And where'd you get that key from?"

"Hey, at least we escaped from Tsunade Kouchousensei, un. As for the key, never you mind." To emphasize his second statement, he shoved the key into his pocket and stuck his tongue out at Sasori, who decided not to reply.

After a few moments, Deidara spoke again. "Anyway, it was worth the risk, wasn't it, un? To have such a beautiful display right before your eyes, then watch it fade into insignificance, only a moment to enjoy it's wonders, un. _That's_ true art."

"But it doesn't last. What's the point of creating something if you can't admire your work, if it's taken away in a heartbeat?" Sasori argued.

"But where's the fun in that? There's no desire for more, no adrenaline rush when you watch, un. It's just _there_!"

"It's also not a health hazard."

Deidara smirked. "You have to admit that was enjoyable, especially the look on Tsunade Kouchousensei's face, un."

Sasori stared silently, but slowly let a smile creep onto his face. "Yeah, it was."

Before either boy could comment, a bell rang followed by a brief announcement.' **All students are to be in class within ten minutes. Any student who arrives tardy to that deadline, unless with a pass, is to be sent to the front office upon arrival to class.'**

The two sophomores looked directly at each other, then, unlocking and locking the door again, rushed off to their sixth period class.

--

After school, after the final bell had rung and most students were either on their way home, in their after school activities, or loitering outside, a small group began congregating towards a lone classroom on the far end of a barren hallway. Soon, eight figures were present in the dimly lit room. The door clicked as it was locked and two more figures appeared. One stood on a podium, facing the perviously gathered while the the other sat to their side.

The standing figure spoke. "The meeting of the Akatsuki Club will now begin."


	5. The Meeting

WARNING: Use of strong language ahead. (I'm sure you all know what that means)

---------------

"The meeting of the Akatsuki Club will now begin," spoke the figure at the podium. He had bright orange hair, grey eyes that seemed to fade from light to dark, and a large amount of facial piercings, mainly positioned around his ears and the bridge of his nose. Pein Meisha was a senior, and, more importantly, president of the Akatsuki club. There was silence after he spoke, a random cough added in probably to point out the quiet. "Yes, well," he continued. "First things first, we have to do roll-call."

Assorted groans erupted from the gathered high schoolers .

"We're all here!" one of them yelled.

Pain glared in their direction, but said nothing. Instead, he reached down inside the podium and pulled out a list. "Like I was saying, roll-call. Akasuna Sasori."

"Here," Sasori murmured. Pain placed a check by his name.

"Fumestu Hidan."

"Damn you," hissed the same guy who was complaining earlier. His hair was pure white and slicked back (Most people believe he uses _a lot_ of hair gel) and he had lavender eyes. Though he wore a simple black hoodie, it was only halfway zipped with no form of shirt underneath, baring his pale chest for the world to see.

The school apparently doesn't care much for dress code (Plus some of the female staff -and in some cases male- didn't mind it at all).

Hidan was another senior, like Pain, so in his mind that gave him the right to belittle the president as much as he wanted. Pein checked his name off without commenting.

"Haetorisou Zetsu."

"Here."

"Hoshigaki Kisame."

"Here."

"Ichirin Konan."

"Here," said the girl who was sitting to the side of Pain. Her hair, like Kisame's, was blue, but a much richer shade and a delicate white flower was neatly pinned on the side. She had a small piercing on her lower lip, possibly an influence from Pain, Konan also being a senior and having known him a while.

"Iyashii Kakuzu."

"Hmph." The reply came from a guy with a scarf wrapped about his mouth and neck and a hooded jacket, the hood pulled up over his head. The only part of his face that was visible was his green eyes and the tan skin around them, plus few wisps of black hair that hung down over his forehead. Kakuzu was the fourth and final senior of the group.

Pain took his response as a yes and checked him off.

"Kibaku Deidara."

"Present!" he said loudly, just to be different.

He silently checked his own name off and called the last person. "Uchiha Itachi."

"Here."

"Okay, everyone's here," Pain said as the final check was written.

"No shit..."

"Shut up Hidan. Now, before the actual meeting takes hold, I would like to address the incident that occurred at the assembly this afternoon." He said nothing more, but directed his gaze straight towards a certain blond.

Said blond gulped and leapt out of his chair. "Danna helped!" he whined, pointing an accusing finger at Sasori.

"Sasori isn't in detention every other week."

"Neither am I, un," he protested. Pain arched an eyebrow. "It's only every two weeks."

The president rubbed his temples and let out a sigh. "Just cut down on the explosions," he warned. Deidara frowned and sat down, muttering something inaudible about 'art critics'.

"Now, onto club business," he said, removing the roll-call sheet and shuffling the rest of his papers. "As I'm sure you all are aware, we have not been very active lately, as Deidara pointed out with his freelance stunt earlier today." There were several murmurs, but no particular phrase was clear in the jumble of voices. He spoke again when the room hushed. "It's about tim we changed that fact. Now this Friday the school is holding another one of their pointless socials, a dance I believe."

With their interests peaked, he continued. "We are all to attend and enact a plan I have devised, which I shall pass along to you all later." Pain made a point to shuffle his papers once again. "Now, until Friday, try to keep a low profile. We don't need anything to happen beforehand."

Deidara shrunk down in his chair.

"And I expect to see all of you back here on Wedsnesday. Meeting dismissed!"

The people in room dispersed, either headed to other after-school activities (Art club for Sasori and Deidara), loitering around the building (something Hidan was quite famous for), or going home after a long day. The only two remaining were Pain and Konan.

"You know Pain, it's near impossible for some of them to keep a low profile," the blue haired girl told him, examining the podium now that he had moved away from it.

"Doesn't hurt to warn them anyway," he responded, moving all of the chairs back to their original locations, as if their presence had never entered the room in the first place.

"Hm," she murmured thoughtfully, leafing through the pages Pein had practically been advertising during the meeting. Her face blanched with exasperation as she realized something. "Pain..."

"What?" he asked, looking at her over his shoulder.

"These papers are blank....."


	6. Discussions

It took Deidara until the next day at school to remember that Itachi had briefly mentioned the possibility of Tobi making an appearance at their meeting, which ultimately did not happen. He wasn't sure which he was happier about: the absence of the orange-hatted nuisance, or the fact the black haired teen was actually wrong about something. Regardless, he promptly reminded the junior of this fact as soon as he saw him at lunch that day.

Itachi decided against reminding Deidara that he never guarantied that would happen, letting the blond have his moment. Besides, it wasn't his place to argue with Deidara anyway. No, that was Sasori's job.

"Deidara, you're the only here who cares," the redhead stated.

"No I'm not. Itachi seems to be right about everything, but this time he's finally wrong! And I have proof, un. Admit it, Danna, this is a historic event."

Sasori sighed and added to the gesture with a roll of his eyes. _So dramatic._

"I bet Kisame agrees with me!" Deidara stated.

"Hm?" Kisame, who hadn't been listening to a single word of the conversation, turned is head at the mention of his name, half of a french-fry hanging out of his mouth.

"Nevermind, un." Deidara frowned at Kisame, who merely shrugged and went back to eating. He sighed and looked around. Wouldn't somebody agree with him? Just one person? Deidara made a mental checklist of the people at the table.

Sasori.

Sasori was automatically out. He _always_ disagreed with Deidara, no matter what the topic was. That's just how the two of them were.

Itachi.

Itachi was out because he was the subject of this dispute. Either way, he refused to chose sides, if even engage in an argument at all. Right now he was employing the latter of his two strategies.

Kisame.

Now, Kisame might have sided with Deidara, if he had asked at any other time. Unfortunately for the blond the topic of dispute was being discussed at lunch, so Kisame's mind was elsewhere.

_"He's like a shark when it comes to food, un," _Deidara thought sourly, giving Kisame an annoyed stare that went unnoticed by the taller of the two. He shook his head, but wasn't giving up just yet. So what if no one was taking his side, that never stopped Deidara before. He had a reputation for being ridiculously stubborn. Everyone who knows the sophomore urges him to join the debate team, which he refuses every time. More of that infamous stubbornness in action.

He opened his mouth to make another statement, but suddenly closed it again, realizing something.

There was one more who was dining with them today!

Well, 'dining' wasn't the best word to describe this person's actions, more like staring at the wall with the usual unreadable expression.

"Hey Zetsu," Deidara called, getting the other's attention. He had oddly decided to associate himself with the group today, making it two days in a row, a new record. (The previous record being one day, and achieved yesterday). When questioned, he muttered something about 'safety in numbers' and promptly dropped the subject.

Deidara mentally slapped himself for not acknowledging his presence before. Zetsu had an odd way of making himself virtually unnoticeable, despite the fact that someone with green hair and yellow eyes would usually stick out like a sore thumb.

Deidara voiced his question when Zetsu's attention was drawn from whatever he was focused on before to him. "I think it's a big deal that Itachi was finally wrong about something, but they disagree. What do you think, un?" The blond waited anxiously for the response. When dealing with Zetsu, it could easily go either way. The green haired boy had a history of contradicting himself when asked for his opinion, as if something in his mind was telling him that he was wrong.

"Well, um..." he began. Deidara could nearly see the internal battle being waged as his features twisted into a confused expression. "Yes, no wait, um, no. Err..." he sat in silence for a moment, staring at one spot on the table like it was going to disappear any second. "Maybe, I guess ," he finally settled on.

"That was interesting," Itachi murmured.

"Thanks Zetsu, un," Deidara said and turned to the others. "Ha! See, he agrees with me."

"He said maybe, Deidara," the redhead calmly informed him.

"Close enough, un," he replied proudly, deciding that he won the argument, for now at least.

Sasori shook his head with a sigh. "You're such a brat sometimes." Deidara didn't hear that last remark, he was too busy waving around a victory sign and grinning ear to ear. Itachi gave him a silent glare and Kisame, who had gotten up to throw away his tray, returned to find himself utterly clueless to the current situation. Zetsu had gone back to staring at the wall, lost in his own thoughts.

"Did I miss something?" Kisame asked. Sasori made a quick cutting gesture with his hand, signaling for him to drop it before they had to repeat that again.

"Well," Deidara began. He jerked his head suddenly to glare at Sasori, but the redhead had already put his arms down and looked away innocently.

"Nevermind." Kisame decided that this was one of those cases where being out of the loop was probably better than being in it. Deidara seemed put off for a moment, but shrugged and dismissed it. They replaced the awkward silence with a simple discussion on possible plans for Friday until the bell rang and the group disbanded for their respective classes.

-------

"Pain, as long as I've know you, this has got to be the craziest plan you've ever come up with," Konan voiced as she scanned the layout for Friday's event, code named 'Dance Dance Dissolution', which by itself raised some eyebrows. (Pain was horrible at naming his own schemes).

The president snatched the papers from her, earning himself a blue-eyed glare for his troubles, and began to lay the blueprints out on the table. Their teacher had been called out for a conference, and Pain was taking full advantage of the free time. Kakuzu, who had been off to the side half-listening, moved over once the pages were spread out and examined them.

"Sir? Why didn't you ask Sasori to draw out the floor plans?" he questioned, eyeing the out of proportion sketches of the gym's layout.

Pain flushed. "It's a rough draft," he calmly stated, and luckily he didn't see Konan mouth out the words 'No it's not' from behind his back. "Besides, I'm going through the revision process of the plan itself right now, pay the visuals no mind." At that he stuffed his drawings back into a folder, just as Konan was reaching for a very squiggly image of something she couldn't quite make out. "Now, where did Hidan go?"

"HEATHENS!" someone yelled as the door slammed opened. They turned to see a certain white-haired senior standing in the doorway. He was glaring angrily at a group of boys standing by the edge of the door, all laughing their heads off.

"Right on cue," Pain commented. "Kakuzu, go get him before he murders our classmates." The dark-skinned boy complied and Hidan was dragged away, kicking and yelling a stream of colorful words.

"Where'd you go?" Konan asked once he had calmed down enough to stay put.

"The teacher left, so I did too. I'm not like you losers, staying put with such a golden opportunity. Then those fucking _**heathens**_," he said the last part loud enough for said 'heathens' to turn their attention to him, still laughing. Hidan sliced his finger across his throat and turned away from them. "They decided it would be fucking hilarious to lock me out the classroom. When I get my hands on those little-"

"Enough," Pain instructed. "We have more important things to deal with. You can kill them later."

Hidan snorted, but put aside his thoughts of revenge for later. He began to look over the layouts on the table.

"What the hell? _Dance Dance Dissolution?! _Do you even listen to yourself when you name these things?"

Pain twitched, increasingly annoyed with all the criticism he was getting for his plans.

"There will be room for discussion tomorrow at the meeting, I just need some general feedback before I make the final additions tonight."

"Eh, it'll work," Hidan muttered, dropping himself into a nearby chair.

"What's the budget?" Kakuzu asked. Pain rolled his eyes at the self-proclaimed treasurer.

"There is none. I know most of the others already have these things in their possession, and what they don't, I've already gathered."

"Then I have no concerns."

Konan opened her mouth to say something. "I'll talk with you later." She glared again, but kept quiet.

"So is this damn discussion over with?" Hidan asked. The president nodded and waved him away. Hidan grinned evilly and made his way over to the people who had locked him out in the hallway, rolling up his sleeves in the process.

"Then we will continue this during the actual meeting tomorrow," Pain said, ignoring the sounds of somebody, or rather _somebodies,_ being viciously pummeled in the background, as he put away his plans.

Hidan smugly returned to his seat just as the teacher walked back in. He stared at the group laying on the floor, bruised and bloody, but cast it aside.

"Okay class, back to work."


	7. Boredom

Pain sat quietly behind the wheel of a shiny black sports-car. The car itself was quite old, bought at a used car store, but with a few repairs and a new coat of paint, nobody would ever know the difference.

But enough about that. Pain rocked the wheel back and forth, waiting. Sure, it was a little before the final bell rang, but no one was going to miss him. He suddenly snapped out of his state of monotony as the chimes rang, signaling the end of the school day. He waited patiently until a familiar blue-haired girl opened the passenger's side door and got in.

"What took you so long?" he asked with a grin.

"Oh shush," Konan said as she pulled out her seatbelt. "Some of us actually go to class."

"I was in class," he muttered as he turned the ignition and drove out of the parking lot. They sat in silence for most of the car ride, Konan occupied with switching radio stations every few minutes, until she found something she was satisfied with and settled on that one.

"So about this plan..."

"Later, Konan."

"But you said later when we discussed it with Hidan and Kakuzu," she told him.

"I meant later, as in, when I'm not driving, and have a chance to get all my materials together."

Pain cast her a quick glance out of his peripheral vision just to catch her let out a silent sigh. "Why are you in such a hurry anyway?" He slowed the car and began pulling into the driveway of a beige house, parking before the closed garage. He got out the car and spoke again. "Especially since we live together."

She didn't respond, only gathered up her things and exited. Pain fumbled with his key chain until he found the right key and unlocked the front door, kicking his shoes off at the doorway. Konan followed suit. The seniors made their way into the living room. Konan let herself fall onto the sofa while Pein sat on the floor in front of the coffee table, pulling a folder out of his book bag and laying it down. He began taking papers out and sorting them. Konan yawned a bit and watched him in a bored fashion. She considered getting up to look through the papers again, but decided she was too comfortable to move for something he was about to explain.

She waited. Pain spent a while moving things around and adding on small little details here and there. Finally he decided he was satisfied with his draft and began to go over it with Konan.

They were almost finished when they were met with an interruption.

"You're late," Konan called as the front door slammed shut, making a note of the clock on the wall opposite to where she was situated. It read 5:09.

"Yes, well, not much can be done about that now," came the disembodied voice from the front hallway.

"Welome home," said Pain as the figure came into view, though Pain did not even glance up from his activities to acknowledge him, "Jiraiya."

The man now standing in the living room was considerably tall, with long spiked white hair pulled into a ponytail that ran past his waist. Under each eye was a long dragging red line.

Konan twisted her body around to look at him. "Hello Jiraiya."

He frowned. "Why can't you two ever call me Jiraiya-sensei? I am a teacher at your school you know."

"But we never took your class."

"Besides, you're a _sex-ed _teacher, which hardly qualifies as an important subject. And you use your own pornographic novels as teacher guides," Pain added.

"They deal with the subject matter!"

"Whatever you say," he mumbled, back to his work.

"Anyways, if I didn't teach it, then the gym teachers would. I'm sure you can imagine how Gai would handle that class." The two students shuddered at the thought.

"Either way, we aren't you students," Pain told him again.

"Would you settle for Mr. Kosei?" Konan said sweetly, using his last name to annoy him.

Jiraiya sighed. "You children have no respect. I took you two orphans in out of the goodness of my heart, and _this _is how you treat me?"

"It's not that we have no respect," Konan answered, "we're just used to you."

"After ten years, it's kinda hard _not_ to be," Pain said under his breath. Jiraiya didn't catch that bit.

"So what are you two doing down here?" he asked, trying to take a peek at all the papers covering the coffee table.

"Stuff," Pain answered in a 'that's all you need to know' tone, and moved his back pack so it blocked any attempts to read his paperwork.

"I don't time for this anyway. I have to do some _research_ for an interesting question posed by one of my students." With that he made his exit upstairs.

"Code for 'I'm going to go look at porn'", Konan commented once he was out of sight.

"Most likely," Pain agreed.

"I HEARD THAT!"

------------

"And that's the plan," Pain said, concluding his explanation of 'Dance Dance Dissolution'. Konan's expression said only three words: What. The. Hell.

"Pain, how do you expect all this to work? Doesn't it seem a bit too, I don't know, complicated?"

"Well, we've been inactive for quite a while now, so our next move needs to be a big one." She sighed and rubbed at her temples. "Just trust me on this one. There are a few bugs to work out, but it'll work."

Konan shook her head and pushed herself up. "Fine. I'll take your word for it." She stretched a little a began to head upstairs.

Stopping herself halfway up, she turned back. Pain was already putting all his files back in the folder.

"Pain?" she called. He looked up from what he was doing. "Promise me you'll get Sasori to redraw the blueprints."

He scowled at her, his glower met only with an innocent smile. "Okay," he grumbled in defeat and waved her away.

"Good," she said and continued her upwards trek.

-----------

The first thing Sasori noticed when he opened his locker first thing Wednesday morning was a manilla folder taped on the inside of the door labeled _'Diagrams Needed'_. He stared blankly at the slip of paper. The handwriting was familiar, but then again, all members of the Akatsuki club should be able to recognize their leader's handwriting. That just left the question of how it had gotten on the inside of his locker.

Sasori dropped the inquiry. Pain's way of doing things just wasn't meant to be questioned, so instead he got his books and peeled off the folder to examine it later.

Which is exactly what he did as soon as he arrived in class. As he opened it, scribbled on the underside of the flap was '_Keep contents secret'._

That part was simple enough. The only real threat to that instruction was a certain blond by the name of Deidara, but he didn't share first period with Sasori. Moving on, he slid out the contents, looking at the piece of paper that rested atop the small pile. The title indicated that it was an in-scale floor plan of the gym, but the drawing itself said otherwise. Frowning a bit, Sasori pulled out a piece of sketch paper and began to redraw the blueprint. It took him a good fifteen minutes, without the interruptions from his teacher coming in when the bell rang and giving the class their assignment.

With that done and to Sasori's liking, he pulled out another piece of paper, but this one was clear. He had noticed a note scribbled on the side that instructed that the diagram needed to be a transparency, so now he was working on tracing over his sketch in marker, which took considerably less time. After waiting for the ink to dry, Sasori put it in the folder and moved on. The page he was looking at now contained more scribbled floor plans, but this time they extended to the area around the gymnasium, placing heavy focus on the exits. Sasori repeated the process, thankful Pein had included measurements in his poorly done blueprints so he wasn't subject to any guesswork.

Apparently those two floor plans were the only things he needed. Good thing too, because Sasori had all of four minutes left in first period. He began to pack up when another scrap of paper slipped out the manilla folder.

_"Give folder to Zetsu' _was all it said. Zetsu was usually the one who ran messages back and forth between the club's president and it's members, so this instruction was easy to understand. Making a mental memo, Sasori put everything away and tucked the folder in between his binders just as the bell rang.

Good thing the green haired boy was in his second period.

-----------

Tobi was bored.

He was supposed to be staying after school to talk to one of his teachers about some missing assignments. Turns out, the teacher had just put them in the wrong folder. Problem solved.

But what that didn't solve was Tobi's current dilemma. He already told his mom that he needed to be picked up an hour after school ended which left him with, he checked his watch, fifty-three minutes to kill. No wait, fifty-_two_.

So bored.

Tobi jumped as he heard footsteps rounding the corner and instinctively crept further into the darkness of the stairwell he'd chosen to sit in. A small group of people walked by, a half of them familiar faces to Tobi. He should know, he just met them Monday after all. He peeked out once they had passed him and caught traces of the group disappearing into one of the rooms on the hall and a door slamming behind them.

Curiosity getting the better of him, the freshman came up to the door and looked through the window. A sheet of black construction paper was taped over it from the inside. He pulled back and looked around instead. The room was unlabeled, but Tobi remembered someone mentioning that it was only used by the various performing arts groups when practicing with each other for an upcoming performance.

With no light peeking out from under the door, Tobi was sure no one was practicing for anything. He reached forward to try the door, but, as he soon found out, it was locked. So instead he pressed his ear against the door to see if he could hear something. He picked up on some voices. They were faint and impossible to make out, but that didn't stop him from trying to.

Tobi wasn't bored anymore.


	8. Dance Dance Dissolution!

The room had already been set up prior to the ring of the final bell, as always. An overhead projector(_Borrowed _from the AV room earlier) was plugged in and aligned with the dry-erase board that rested on the back wall.

Once all the Akatsuki members had entered the meeting room and settled themselves, the lights dimmed. It was just light enough for them to be able to see each other, but only as silhouettes with minor details. Another silhouette appeared, but the long overcoat instantly gave away his identity. Pain positioned himself between the club members and the overhead, clearing his throat to gather their attention.

"Our inactivity as the Akatsuki club will end Friday with my newest scheme." He reached behind his back and pressed down the 'on' button. The room lit up as the overhead burst to life, projecting an image on the far wall off a red cloud with a white lining, the club's symbol, carrying inside of it the words 'Dance Dance Dissolution'.

Insert various groans.

Rather than having his title ridiculed again, Pain pulled the current transparency off and replaced it with a floor plan of the gym. Sasori smirked inwardly at his handiwork. The president pulled out a black marker and began to move over to the board, his body masking whatever he was writing upon it. He removed himself to allow the others a brief glance of what he had done, before picking up a yard stick to commence with the oral explanation.

"Here," he said, tapping at the board, "is where you all should be." Nine combos of either one or two letters were now present on the board. These included: D, H, I, Ka, Ki, Ko, P, S, and Z, each obviously corresponding to one of the Akatsuki. "Deidara and Kakuzu."

Both teens jerked their heads to give him their full attention.

Pain's ruler hit the board again, pointing to their corresponding letters, which were both centered in the middle of the gymnasium, relatively close to one another. "You two will be working the crowd. Deidara, when I give you the signal, I want you to make your way to the dance floor, making sure the chaperones see you, and hide yourself in the middle of it until further notice.

"Hai!" the blond replied, giving Pain and cheesy salute.

"Kakuzu, I need you to mostly stay close to the large crowds. Eventually, your task may lead you all around the gym, but for the most part, stay centered.

"Understood."

"Zetsu will be our lookout." Pain pointed to the Z on the map, which was settled on the highest point of the bleachers, off to the corner. The green haired boy nodded his head slightly, since that was what he always did. "Konan, Sasori, Itachi, and I will be off to the side, keeping a low profile."

Konan, who wasn't really listening, looked up at the mention of her name, then went back to what she was doing after realizing she wasn't needed.

The tip of the yard stick grazed past a P, an S, an I, and a Ko, which were placed in various spots on the blueprint, but close to the wall wherever they were.

"And where the fuck am I?" The club's notorious potty-mouth demanded. His marker, as well as Kisame's, were also close to the wall, but on the other side from everyone else.

"You and Kisame are part of our getaway, so you two will stay outside and unseen."

Hidan muttered something inaudible.

"What's the matter Hidan? I thought you _wouldn't _ want to attend a 'Heathen' dance, un," Deidara mocked, using air quotes.

"Shove it, Blondie."

"Argue later," Pain commanded. "I trust you all still have your headsets."

The responses varied, but they all translated to yes. The headsets in question were designed by Sasori. They were small, wireless earpieces with a mike attached, used to allow the members to secretly communicate with each other when spread out. The range allowed, at most, 500 yards between headsets, which basically covered anyplace on school grounds. **(1)**

"We will need them to communicate with each other once the plan is in operation. You'll also need night vision goggles, which will be supplied at the end of the meeting."

Everyone exchanged questioning glances. "I have listed your individual assignments and materials you'll need on separate pieces of paper, that Konan will now hand out."

But Konan didn't respond this time. She was engrossed in the task of folding a single sheet of blue paper into various origami creatures, then unfolding and repeating the process, which was what usually happened anytime Konan found a spare leaf of paper, _especially_ if she was bored.

Pain's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "Konan..."

She snapped out of her task. "Oh, sorry." The blue haired girl quickly stood and handed out the appropriate paper to each member, then took her seat again.

"This is the order. Zetsu will be on lookout the entire time while Kisame and Hidan take care of the exits. While Kakuzu is working on his task, Deidara will sneak out the gym, unseen, and take his new position. Once Kakuzu is done, Itachi will move out, and Deidara after him, once I give the okay. Deidara, once your mission is completed, meet with the others outside. With your knowledge on the school's security system I'm sure you'll be able to get in and out undetected."

The blond nodded. He made it his top priority when he started high school to know where every camera was and it's line of vision.

"Sasori, you'll be the next one to move, then Konan and I will close it up, before we all make our escape."

For this, Pain turned back to the overhead, replacing the current page with a map of the outside of the gym. Pain pointed out the exits individually, before stopping on one towards the back of the building, almost behind the bleachers. "We will use this door for our escape, so keep that close in mind. Any questions?"

Hidan opened his mouth.

"That _don't_ include the title of the plan."

He shut it again.

"I do, un." When the leader didn't add anything, Deidara continued. "How am I supposed to get out of the gym if the teachers are guarding the exits? I'm the last person they'd let out into an empty school alone, un."

"Yes, that crossed my mind too, but I need you and your skills for this particular task. What we need, is a distraction. Someone new, unknown, who won't arouse suspicion."

On cue, the door, which could no longer handle the strain of someone's full weight being forced upon it, flew open, sending Tobi tumbling into the room.

"Um, hi guys?" he said, nervously rubbing the back of his neck.

Pain grinned. "Perfect."

----------

Tobi found himself sitting in a chair in the center of the room, surrounded by nine older teens, five of which he knew, the others, he didn't. The room was dark with the exception of a bright light that was being shone down on him, casting the others in shadows. An orange haired senior, who appeared to be in charge here, was pacing in front of him, occasionally passing into the light, which reflected brightly off his many piercings when he did.

Tobi began thinking of the interrogation scenes of old dramas and wondering if this is what it was like to be in that position.

"Tobi," Pain was now speaking to him, "do you know why we call ourselves the Akatsuki?"

The freshman shook his head, which was probably the correct response, even if he had known.

"Akatsuki means dawn. Our school is Hakubo High, which means dusk. Dawn is dusk's opposite, so we, as the dawn, must oppose the dusk in every way. That is our goal here. We are slowly undermining the authority of this school. Keeping things from getting too boring with our stunts. And, eventually, we will secretly rule the school right underneath Tsunade's nose. Dawn shall rise and bring light to the darkness brought by Dusk!"

The members applauded Pain's speech, most half-heartedly.

"And now, Tobi, you are going to help."

"I am?" Tobi asked, tilting his head slightly.

"Yes you are. You know about Friday's dance, correct?" Tobi nodded. Pain walked over to Konan and retrieved what he'd asked her to write while he was pacing. "We have big plans for that dance, but there's just one minor kink that needed to be worked out." He handed him the paper. "This is all you need to do."

Tobi took it and scanned the instructions. "Does this make me an Akatsuki member then?"

"Subordinate," Pain answered. "It'll take more than that for you to become a full-fledged member, but we'll discuss that later." He pulled out a box and placed it on a table. "These are the night vision goggles you'll need." He picked one out for demonstration.

It looked nothing like the goggles shown on Tv. It was much smaller, and less bulky. Appearance-wise, it was more like a pair of sunglasses than goggles.

_Thick_ sunglasses, but sunglasses none-the-least.

Pain handed them to each member, and the new junior member, glad for Tobi's sake he'd opted to pick up several extras incase anyone broke theirs prior to Friday (Pain was positive either Deidara or Hidan, or both, would probably do just that). After that, the meeting was pretty much over and everyone began to file out, but Pein stopped one member in particular before he could make his exit.

"Sasori, do you have any extra headsets?"

"Of course," the redhead replied. "Should I give one to Tobi tomorrow?"

"That would be appreciated. You may leave now."

Once he left, the usual after-meeting ritual began. Namely, restore the room to it's previous condition, leaving no evidence behind that they were ever there. Konan had already taken care of the smaller details, such as papers and the chairs. That left Pain with the task of taking the overhead back to the AV room.

"See, Konan, I told you it would all work out," he informed the girl while unplugging the machine.

"Whatever you say Pain, whatever you say."

---------------

Thursday was a blur for the students of Hakubo high. Most of them were waiting in anticipation to enjoy Friday's dance.

Ten teens in particular were waiting in anticipation to _destroy_ Friday's dance.

The staff was busy with preparations to make sure anything that could go wrong wouldn't.

The art club was busy too. As usual, they were in charge of decorations and because of the last-minuteness of the dance, a club meeting had to be set up Thursday to actually get supplies together and make what had to be made. Gym classes forced the actual decorating to be pushed back until the day of, right after school.

As promised, Sasori delivered a headset to Tobi and instructed him on how to use it. (How the redhead found Tobi in the first place was a mystery.)

The rest of the club went about life as normal. Pain ranted to Konan, who wasn't listening what-so-ever; Kakuzu stalked the vending machines for loose change; Zetsu was lost somewhere in his own mind; Itachi basically ignored everyone and anyone and Kisame pretended not to notice. The more mischievous members, i.e. Deidara and Hidan, were trying their best to stay out of trouble. Deidara occupied himself with his favorite pastime next to art, which was aggravating his redheaded classmate. Hidan wasn't as successful and managed to give a fellow senior a black eye. Luckily for him his teachers were so used to his violent tendencies that they usually let it slide. Lucky for him, unlucky for the victim.

When the bell finally rang, eager students returned home to plan.

Then, it was Friday.

Just as Thursday rushed by, Friday's school day dragged on agonizingly slow. The school was buzzing with talk of the dance. Whose taking who? What to wear? What songs will be played?

The Akatsuki had to keep an extra low profile. Some of them renowned trouble makers and the rest known for hanging around them, the teachers were on high alert for any stunts they might pull. The only one out of suspicion was Tobi, who hadn't made a name for himself yet.

With the dance itself not until six o'clock that evening, it was a matter for counting down the hours. Anticipation rose with every passing hours, each bringing the highlight of the week closer and closer. When the clock struck three, half of the attending student body eagerly rushed home to get ready, giving themselves roughly three hours. The other half, who stayed behind for varying reasons, brought whatever they needed to change into later.

The art club and the few volunteers it had gathered were already busy at work to prepare the gym within their limited time amount. Of the Akatsuki club, that included Sasori, Deidara, and Konan. The latter was actually a member of the art club, but only attended meetings when she wasn't busy with something else. She was there today by request of Pain.

Speaking of Pain, he had also required the rest of the club to stay after in order to run through the plan again and do an inventory check. After about ten run-throughs and personal interrogations about their own tasks 'til he was satisfied everything was according to plan, the dance was already a few minutes underway.

The group split up, arriving at the gym either alone or in pairs, making sure there was a sufficient time gap between the last member's entry before they made their own. Once everyone was in, they mixed in with the crowd, enjoying the party itself until the _real_ fun began.

--------------------

About an hour and a half in, Pein gave the signal.

Deidara and Sasori were forced to tear themselves away from their latest debate (How they could hear over the music, Kami knows) to move into the position. The blond maneuvered his way through the crowd on the dance floor, which was jamming to a Cobra Starship song, and eventual got lost in the sea of faces. Sasori on the other hand, positioned himself between two posters he himself had hung up earlier and leaned back with his arms crossed in a too-cool-for-school manner. Kakuzu was already slinking alongside the masses, crouched slightly so his height wouldn't give him away. Zetsu sat in his spot on the bleachers, hidden in the shadows of an artificial tree that had been placed in the various corners of the room. Tobi was idly roaming, but staying in the same general area. Itachi had found some random chair against the wall and proceeded to claim it as his own, whilst Pain and Konan settled next to the bleachers.

The orange haired boy pressed a button on his earpiece to open communication. "Kisame, Hidan. You guys set?"

Kisame twirled a key on his finger that had been used to lock all but one of the outside doors. That one was hindered by sheer body weight. "We've got all the exits covered," he responded just as the key decided it didn't like him anymore and flew off his finger. Kisame made no attempts to retrieve it.

The janitors have hundreds of keys, surely they wouldn't miss one.

"HURRY UP IT'S FUCKING COLD!" Hidan screamed into his mike, to which Pain lowered the volume so as not to go deaf.

"You wouldn't have this problem if you'd just wear a shirt," Kisame chided, noting that Hidan's upper body was only covered by a white hoodie which, as usual, was left unzipped.

Hidan gave him the two finger salute and leaned harder against the door.

Pain sighed and switch feeds. "Are you done yet Kakuzu?"

"Almost," the dark haired senior responded. Green eyes darted about in every direction, searching, making sure he hadn't missed anything. He weaved through the crowd one more time, then moved over to Pain and Konan. "Done," he informed them, reaching into his coat pockets and emptying the contents into a large box, which was already almost full.

"Itachi, move out." The raven wordlessly stood and made his way to the other side of the room, effortlessly dodging the dancers. He stopped outside of the gym office, which had been converted into a makeshift DJ's booth. Itachi knocked loudly on the door and stepped back, his black clothes allowing him to melt into the shadows.

The DJ for hire stepped out and looked around, allowing Itachi to slip past him and lock the door. Once the DJ noticed, he began to pound furiously at the door, but Itachi remained unconcerned. The music was far the loud for anyone outside to hear, so he focussed on remaining unseen as he went about his work.

The junior scanned the work table until found what he was looking for. A set of CDs were lined up for use. He picked up the one designated to be used next, then reached into his jacket. He pulled out a CD case and removed the disk inside, which he had burned at home.

Now was the tricky part.

Itachi pushed his glasses up and carefully studied the DJ's disk. Despite all his protests, Itachi's glasses _were_ prescription, the red tint was just for show. Without them, his vision was slightly below average, but with them, his eyes could catch things very few could, which made him perfect for the task at hand. Taking a marker, Itachi began to forge the writing from the mixed CD onto his own, making a perfect copy of it. He placed his disk on the table and the original in the case before turning back to the door.

The man outside was now slamming into the door, which meant Itachi had to time this carefully. As he drew back for another assault, the raven flipped the latch and slightly opened the door, resulting in the DJ tumbling in and Itachi making his getaway. Dazed and confused, the man looked around, decided nothing was out of place, and went back to work.

Itachi moved over to the others, stared at them silently, then went to sit on the nearby bleachers.

Interpreting, Pain opened the feed of his headset again. "Tobi."

"Yes, sir!" the freshman practically squeaked, startling some nearby party-goers.

"You're up. Deidara, be ready."

Tobi bounded his way to the exit Pain had indicated to him prior and the teacher who was guarding it, who happened to be the principal herself.

"You must be Tsunade-kouchousensei."

Tsunade frowned. "What is it kid?"

Tobi stared at her for a moment. Truth-be-told, this was the first time he'd actually seen the principal, so this was big for him.

"I haven't got all day," Tsunade grumbled.

Meanwhile, Deidara made his way to the edge of the crowd, carefully watching the chaperones. He pressed a finger to the headset.

"Zetsu, are any of the teachers looking this way, un?"

The green haired lookout peered down. "Yeah."

"Well, tell me when they're not!"

He watched for a few more moments. "Now." Deidara bolted, hiding himself behind one of the fake potted plants. The blond breathed a sigh of relief when no heads turned in his direction, then crept his way over to where Tobi was talking to Tsunade.

"So, what do you want?"

"Advice. See, I'm new here...."

"Obviously if you're asking me for advice," she muttered.

"...and I was wondering if you could tell me how to ask one of these girls to dance."

"Just ask her."

"But I don't know most of these girls."

"Again, just ask her."

"But what if she says no?"

"Then ask a different one."

"But what if _she_ says no?!"

When Tsunade closed her eyes to rub her temples, Deidara saw his chance and made a break for the door.

"What was that?" the principal demanded as she heard the door shut behind her, but when she turned around, there was nothing to see. She shook her head and turned back. "Look kid, if you won't take my advice-"

Tobi was gone.

Tsunade groaned. "Kids these days, I swear."

------

"I made it, un!" Deidara proudly informed the leader as he carefully navigated through the empty building, staying out of eyeshot of any security cameras.

"You know the way, right?" Pain asked.

"Of course!" the blond challenged, mocking offense.

"Good luck sempai!" Tobi cheered, now joined with the others in the gym. That didn't get a response.

Traveling through the many hallways and stairwells, the blond found his destination, the basement.

Sliding down his night-vision goggles, which were serving as a headband, Deidara moved into the dark room, slowly proceeding until he found the electrical boxes and determined which one controlled the gym. The artist reached into the bag hanging off his shoulder and felt around till his fingers closed around something. He pulled out a small clay bird that stared back with beady black eyes.

It looked harmless enough, but in reality, the clay he used was heavily laced with explosive powder. A sudden impact would easily detonate the bomb in disguise. Deidara gingerly traced it's outline and waited for Pain's signal.

------

The music began to fade to nothing, implying that the DJ was in the process of switching disks. To replace the silence, the sound of Fall Out Boy's "Dance Dance" immediately filled the room. Pain kept his hand to his earpiece, knowing it was only a matter of seconds.

As the song entered the second verse, it cut off, replaced with a low buzzing, almost like coursing electricity. Everyone stopped, too confused to do anything about it. The buzzing gradually got louder and louder until it finally climaxed into a piercing screech, comparable to someone dragging their nails along a chalkboard.

"Deidara, now!"

The blonde artist grinned. "Art is a bang!" he shouted to no one while he launched the sculpture at the fuse box. It exploded on contact in a shower of sparks.

Upstairs, the gym was sent into a shroud of darkness, just as the screech stopped. The room chorused with shrieks, mostly female. At this time people began reaching for anything they owned with a light on it: cell phones, mp3s, watches, etc.

Too bad Kakuzu had knicked them all while they were dancing.

The dark skinned senior nudged the box with his foot, grinning inwardly. Pick-pocketing was one of his main skills (The other one was sewing, but the others weren't allowed to know that).

"Did it work, un?" Pain jumped slightly, forgetting his still had the channel open.

"Yes, Deidara, now go meet Kisame and Hidan outside." The blond nodded, which, of course, Pain didn't see, and went back upstairs to slip out a nearby exit.

------

The gym was in a panic.

People were running about, bumping into each other, trying to find some source of light. The teachers had tried to calm everyone down, and lead them orderly outside, but they couldn't do that. Mainly because any door they tried to open was locked from the outside, leaving them trapped, even the main doors. (Deidara had doubled back and locked them after his escape.)

"Quiet!" Tsunade's voiced boomed over everyone else's and they were forced to silence themselves. "Everyone just calm down."

And that's what they would've done if the next phase of the Akatsuki's plot hadn't come into play.

Sasori, now equipped with night-vision goggles like the others, reached behind the two posters he was between and grabbed hold of a set of strings hidden behind each. The strings looped around the beams holding the roof up and back down to where they disappeared under the bleachers. Sasori gave them a sharp jerk and the bleachers suddenly began to fold in, the trigger that started the automated set-up having been pulled.

Teens settled on the bleachers at this time shrieked and scrambled to get off before they closed completely. Pain leaped up the disappearing steps until he reached the top as it stopped, now sitting on what looked like a small wall. The plants situated on it prior had been dislodged and crashed to the floor, the sound of their clay pots breaking added to the terror. Zetsu, still in the corner, frowned slightly at the loss of his plastic shield.

Sasori jerked the strings at an odd angle, forcing them to detach. He wound them up in a ball and stuck it in his pocket.

Pain edged along the bleachers until he was in the center, then reached inside the inside of his overcoat and grabbed three cans of spray paint, colors red, white and black.

"Konan, are you ready?"

"Yes," she responded, fingering the sharp edge of a small origami shuriken. While the bleachers were moving, she had constructed twenty-nine others just like it. With a flick of her wrist, she launched it at a balloon, popping it. The noise produced several screams from the students and a few from the teachers. She continued, launching another projectile just as the screams faded.

While this went on, Pain grabbed his paints and began working on the wall in front of him, the noise covering up the sound of the spray cans.

"Hurry up Pain, I'm running out of balloons here," she warned, popping one of the fourteen remaining.

"Done!" he said to himself and leaped down. Konan stopped, leaving only nine balloons still inflated. "Akatsuki, move out," he ordered. They all gathered themselves at the back door. "Guys, we're leaving now." That was directed to the people outside. Konan popped two more balloons to cover the sound of the door opening.

Outside, it looked just as black as it did inside, just as planned. They went out one at a time, slipping under a black tarp that had been placed there to give the illusion the door was still closed. Three more balloons were sacrificed as a precaution. Once everyone else was out, the final four shuriken were launched, the following screams drowned out the door slamming shut.

The group was walking away from school, not chancing any opportunity to get caught by hanging around to see what happened. Pain watched the nine teens before him, all chatting with themselves in excitement. He smiled.

"Mission accomplished."

----------

Twenty minutes later, the backup lights kicked in and everyone could see again. The first thing they noticed was the huge painting above the bleachers.

Inside a black backdrop, the words 'Dusk falls to Dawn' were painted in blood red graffiti print, outlined in white. At the foot of the bleachers was a huge box filled with everything Kakuzu had snatched. They went to claim their belongings.

Once the box was empty, the teachers, now with their walkie-talkies back, called in for the janitors to come unlock the doors.

The students plowed out like bulls, running over anyone in their way.

Tsunade groaned to herself when she had a chance to survey the crime scene. "We're not having anymore dances for a long, long time."

-----------------------------------------------------

**1. I'm not sure if that's an accurate figure or not. It seems right to me, but correct me if I'm wrong.**

**This arc is DONE!! The longest chapter yet, I have to say.**


	9. Middle School

Even a week after the school dance, the hype about the night's events was still at a high. To discourage any attention that might be drawn to them as a group, Pain canceled all formal meetings and stated that no big plans were going to be carried out until things quieted down.

Of course, that didn't stop any individual action. No, the president was only concerned with the whole Akatsuki falling under suspicion. He had made sure no evidence had been left behind (Minus Konan's paper shuriken, but that couldn't have been helped. Thankfully she had constructed them with fragile paper, so the wind pressure given off by the balloons would reduce each to shreds), that would lead them to any suspects. Since the operation was clearly the work of a large group, the discovery of their meetings would instantly give them away. Thus Pain encouraged, just this once, for them to act on their own, at least to divert attention.

And that one simple order, no _suggestion_, was the reason a certain white-haired senior was fleeing down the hall, unlabeled bottle in hand, and a very angry principal hot on his heels. When he made a sharp turn around the corner, the following events flashed by at light speed.

Next thing he knew, Hidan was on the ground, opposed by two familiar faces who were also on the ground, and forced to stare upwards at a rather livid Tsunade who was cracking her knuckles menacingly.

"Shit."

---------

Hidan glanced to his right, the younger males both glaring daggers at him.

"Hey, don't give me that shit, alcohol's not allowed on school grounds."

"So you steal her sake?!" Kisame roared.

"Hey, I'm just making sure our principal follows her own fucking rules."

"That's Shizune's job you idiot!"

Deidara only sighed. It was probably their own dumb luck that had gotten Kisame and himself falsely accused for being accomplices in Hidan's crime when all they were doing in reality was talking before Hidan abruptly crashed into them. That and the fact Tsunade had been waiting for a chance to bust him for the month's earlier fireworks incident (Which should've laid forgotten after the dance, but the blond woman wasn't known for letting things slide).

So now the trio was standing in the same spot they had been apprehended at, Tsunade just around the corner in the middle of a discussion. Far enough away that either group was just out of earshot to the other, but close enough that they couldn't escape without her knowing.

The conversation ended and Tsunade reappeared, wearing a large smirk on her face.

"Alright. I was thinking about assigning the lot of you plain old, regular detention, but I was just informed on an interesting alternative. Some eighth graders from Suna Middle and Konoha Middle are coming for a high school tour today, and you three are going to show them around."

"What?!" They yelled in unison.

"No complaints!" the principal snapped. "Go wait in there while I go get them and assign your groups." Grudgingly, the trio walked into the room she had indicated.

But they weren't the only ones there.

"Itachi! You have detention?!" Deidara exclaimed in horror. Itachi NEVER got in trouble for anything.

"No," he calmly replied, but made no attempt to explain his reasons for participating in the middle school event.

"And what about you, Danna, un?" The blond turned his attentions to the redhead who was also in the room.

"I got volunteered," Sasori replied, tone heavily laced with disgust. Deidara held his tongue about asking who volunteered him.

"I bet that's what happened to this fucker over here," Hidan commented, gesturing in Itachi's direction, who still made no attempts to acknowledge the statement as right or wrong.

The teens (minus the ever stoic Itachi) sighed collectively, dreading what was about to befall them.

Tsunade returned later and beckoned them into the hallway. The quintet emerged to discover fifteen middle schoolers standing there, conversing with themselves.

"Silence!" Tsunade said and they hushed themselves. "These are your guides today. Akasuna Sasori, Fumestu Hidan, Hoshigaki Kisame, Kibaku Deidara, and Uchiha Itachi." She pointed each out respectively. There were some mumbled whispers at the mention of Itachi's name, but not enough to bother the principal. "Since there are fifteen of you, you will be split up into groups of three. As I call your names, move to the high schooler assigned to your group."

Tsunade glared at said high schoolers who, taking the silent command, spread out from the tight knit group they'd unconsciously formed. Tsunade pulled out a piece of paper nobody had realized she was holding and cleared her throat.

"Haruno Sakura, Inuzuka Kiba, and Sabaku Kankurou. You three will be with Sasori. Hyuuga Hinata, Hyuuga Neji, and Nara Shikamaru, your leader is Hidan."

She waited for the six of them to settle themselves in their new groups before she continued the roll-call. "Akimichi Chouji, Rock Lee, and Sabaku Temari are with Kisame. Sabaku Gaara, Uzumaki Naruto, and Yamanaka Ino will work with Deidara. And the last group will consist of Aburame Shino, Kyouki TenTen, and Uchiha Sasuke, under Itachi."

The Akatsuki members exchanged brief glances at the mention of the last eighth grader, but said nothing.

Tsunade cleared her throat. "Well, what are you all standing around here for? Get on with it!" And on that note, the twenty students quickly divided into their five groups and went their separate ways before the principal could find another excuse to yell at them.

-------------

Sasori was not happy in the least bit.

It wasn't that he didn't like kids. Well, that was a major factor, but he didn't want to be there at all. The only reason for his current predicament was a green jumpsuit wearing, bowl cut sporting, fuzzy browed, overly enthusiastic gym teacher by the name of Might Guy, who had heard about the tour and decided it would be a great experience to help Sasori build people skills, or in his case, the lack of.

On top of that, the group he'd been assigned, Sasori decided, were three of the most annoying people the redhead had ever had the displeasure of meeting.

First off was the girl, Sakura apparently. After being acquainted with Kisame, Konan, and Zetsu, Sasori was sure he'd seen every possible hair color there was, but this girl's short pink hair had just proven him wrong. There was also something to be said of her forehead, but he chose not to dwell on that subject. Not to mention that as soon as groups were given, she embarked on an almost endless rant about not being paired with Itachi's younger brother. Sasori had tried to tune her out after the first few seconds.

The next guy, Kiba, was probably just as bad. He had spiky brown hair and an enormous grin that nearly stretched to both cheeks, which both bore a red fang marking. The only reason the girl's rant was _almost _endless was because this one kept interrupting her to complain about the guy. Then Sakura would get mad, say a few things to defend the boy she obviously had a crush on, and continue with her rant. This repeated several times, and it was beginning to give Sasori a headache.

For some reason a nagging voice in the back of his head was telling the redhead that this was how the others felt whenever he and Deidara disputed art.

Then there was the last kid, and by far the worst of the three on levels of annoyance. Mainly because Sasori already knew him.

The sophomore's head was screaming in protest when Kankurou's name was called for his group. He'd instantly recognized him from back when he was an eighth grader himself at Suna middle, and, unfortunately for Sasori, Kankurou had made a similar connection. Kankurou was the weird kid who was recognized by his cat-eared hood and the purple markings painted onto his face. When they met, the younger had just entered sixth grade and took and instant liking to the redhead, much to his dismay, and began following him around (which was why Sasori could sympathize with Zetsu and Deidara's current issue with Tobi). And now, he actually had a reason to follow him.

Sasori's eyelids drooped slightly and he let out a sigh. "Lucky me."

----------------

Without the use of their last names, Hidan could tell the two Hyuugas were related. Even though the girl had short purplish hair and the boy's long and brown, they both had the same pale eyes that made them look blind.

But that's where the similarities ended. The girl, Hinata, refused to say more than three words at a time and stuttered out almost everything she said. Plus she had a bad habit of twiddling her fingers together and flinching whenever Hidan swore, which in both cases, was a lot.

Neji, on the other hand, had a confident, if not _over_confident, tone to his voice which irked Hidan to no end and caused to him to swear even more every time he made a smart ass remark. Which, in turn, caused Hinata to flinch even more, but that part the senior found amusing. What he didn't find amusing was when Neji would scold him for startling his cousin. It was pretty much one big, vicious circle.

The final addition to their group, Shikamaru, looked like he would fall asleep at any moment. For the most part he stayed out of the chaos, but the occasional utter of 'troublesome' would leak into the conversation. Hidan threatened to cut off the short pony tail his brown hair was pulled up into and sacrifice it to Jashin, which left the trio wondering who the hell Jashin was, giving Hidan enough time to focus on the tour he was _supposed_ to be giving.

----------

Kisame quietly surveyed his new group, arms folded across in a way that, with his size and general appearance, made him look quite formidable.

Chouji was a stout boy with spiral marks on his cheeks and a bandana tied about his head in such a way that it made his tan colored hair stick out on both sides like horns. One hand was holding a bag of chips while the other one was feeding them to him at a rapid pace. The book bag he carried was no doubt full of similar packages of the junk food, confirmed when he finished his snack and promptly pulled out another.

He changed attention to the female of the group, Temari. Her blond hair was pulled back into four short, but identical, ponytails set perpendicular to each other. She was too busy watching Chouji in disgust to notice the change of focus, but when she did, she furrowed her brows at his beady-eyed stare. Kisame snorted in amusement and moved on to the last boy.

That's when his face went blank.

Lee had black hair styled in a ridiculous bowl cut, large eyebrows, and was dressed in a green jumpsuit. He reminded Kisame too much of _him_.

_[Flashback]_

_The swim team stood eagerly at the edge of the pool, ready to begin their first practice of the season. Unfortunately for them, the coach wasn't there yet, so for now all the could do was stare at the undisturbed surface while they stretched their limbs out._

_"Here comes the green jumpsuit apparatus," one member commented as their coach arrived, laughing at his own joke._

_"Baka!" his teammate hissed, elbowing him in the ribs. "He's not even wearing his jumpsuit." Which was true. Guy was clad in a simple pair of swim trunks, which were green, of course. (The swim team was ecstatic when Tsunade had banned Speedoes __**(1)**__)_

_A young, ninth grade Kisame blinked in confusion. "Isn't that the gym coach?"_

_A female swimmer smiled at him before replying. "Guy-sensei is the coach for most things at our school."_

_"Oh," he responded._

_"Alright, for all you newbies who don't know me, I'm your coach, Guy." He gave a grin and a thumbs-up and Kisame could've sworn a light flashed off his teeth. "Here, winning or loosing has got nothing to do with it. It's all about working hard, doing your best, and improving yourself. Now, for warmups, I want everyone one to give me 200, eight lengths for those who don't know! And do your best!" To accent his statement, Guy did a dramatic kick._

_Unfortunately, Kisame had chosen to move at that moment, which put him on the receiving end of that kick and shot him out into the water._

_Thankfully nothing was hurt but his pride._

_"Oh, uh, sorry about that kid," Guy commented. _

_Kisame only glared while spitting some water out his mouth._

_[End Flashback]_

That was the beginning of Kisame's grudge against the coach, further fueled by the fact that, even though he'd been on the swim team for three years now, Guy could never seem to remember who he was.

And this Lee kid could've been his son, or clone maybe. When he gave Kisame that same grin and thumbs-up and lights flashed again, he was convinced.

The junior grinned to himself. "This is gonna be fun."

-------------

Deidara's group was...interesting, to say the least. Out of the fifteen kids, only three were blond and for some reason he had gotten stuck with two of them. Deidara wondered to himself if Tsunade had done that on purpose.

In addition to the blonds was a redhead, Gaara, who bore some resemblance to Sasori, down to the apathetic expression and lidded eyes (Again the blond wondered if that was planned). A kanji tattoo of the word 'love' peeked out from under his bangs and dark rings circled the area around his eyes.

One of the blonds was a female named Ino that Deidara decided he did not like one bit as soon as he saw her. With a bang flipped over her right eye and a high set ponytail, she could've been his mirror image. He was positive he didn't like her when she started talking, first mentioning how she couldn't be in Sasuke's group, then, when she finally noticed the guide, made the mistake of assuming he was a girl and saying that "she" had stolen her hairstyle.

That didn't end well.

Naruto, the spiky haired blond boy, was too busy laughing at this point until Deidara silenced him with a glare. The kid had whisker marks on his cheeks, which wasn't too odd considering Kisame appeared to have gills. He spent a good time reminding Deidara and Ino how similar they looked by asking if they were related or if they had the same hairdresser, ending most of his sentences with 'dattebayo', not unlike the sophomores own habit of ending his with 'un'.

Deidara knew he was in for a very rough time.

--------------

At the moment, both Uchihas were locked in a staring match. Itachi watched his younger brother with an expression that gave away no emotions what-so-ever, and Sasuke, who looked remarkably like his brother, minus the fact his hair was darker, shorter, and spiked in the back, stared back with a similar look, except there was a slight glimmer of anger in his black eyes.

The brown haired boy of their group, Shino, was also unreadable, but that was mostly because his face was masked by sunglasses and a high collar. His head turned briefly away from the staring contest to watch a fly that was passing through.

The girl, TenTen, shifted uncomfortably at the general awkwardness. Her hair was also brown, pulled into two identical buns. She rubbed at her arm and opened her mouth to say something, but the siblings chose that moment to draw back and continue the walk around the school. She let her arm drop and sighed, following behind them.

For all the teens, today was going to be a long, long day.

--------------------------------------------------------

**(1)** that was one of the first rules my swim coach gave us on the first day XD


	10. Tours, Part 1

After their valiant escape from Tsunade's wrath, Hidan's group stopped halfway down the path he'd selected for them. He stood in the middle of the hallway, facing the three eighth graders he was forced to drag around the building for the day.

"Where the fuck am I supposed to take you three?" he complained.

"What about the, um, library?" Hinata shyly asked, pointing to a door on the left with the label 'Media Center' upon it. Hidan surveyed her for a moment, surprised that the girl had actually formed a sentence.

The senior shrugged. "Why not?" he said and led them inside.

The library itself was quite spacious, most of the shelves pushed up against the wall, or stacked domino style around the tables that centered the room. The only inhabitants at the moment were a few students roaming the aisles or seated at the tables, some sleeping, and the librarians who'd taken up refuge in the back rooms.

"It's awfully quiet in here," Neji commented, scanning the rows of books with his pale eyes.

"What'd you expect? It's a fucking library!"

"Shush," a black haired librarian chided, pressing a finger to her crimson lips. He glared at her as she returned to the back room.

"Stupid Kurenai..." he grumbled. As he turned back to the kids, Hidan noted that something was off. "Where'd your sister go?"

"Cousin," Neji corrected.

"I don't care if she's your fucking grandmother! Answer the question!" He lazily gestured to his left, where Hinata was reading through the various selections on a particular shelf.

Hidan groaned and walked into one of the aisles, trying to get as far away from them as he was permitted to at the moment. Shikamaru strolled over to where Hinata was, looking over her shoulder. The shy girl gave him an acknowledging smile before going back to what she was doing. Neji stayed where he was, glancing around as if he was trying to see everything at the same time.

Shikamaru yawned, "Libraries are troublesome," and leaned back onto the shelf, which, unfortunately, decided it didn't want to support his weight. The two teens jumped away as the shelf began to fall, catching the bookcase behind it in it's descent. The momentum toppled that shelf as well and the cycle continued down the row like a chain of dominoes.

The last thing Hidan was expecting that day was to have a mountain of books raining down on him, but that's exactly what happened when he noticed a bit too late that the shelf was leaning over him.

"What the-!" his yell was cut off as bookcases came crashing down on his persona.

"Uh, sorry," Shikamaru said, unable to find the correct response for burying someone alive. The students glanced between each other, not quite sure what to do in their current situation. The books shifted slightly as Hidan attempted to rise from his makeshift grave, any and all comments he made coming out as muffled, incomprehensible screeches. The bystanders looked on in utter confusion, many rudely torn from their slumber. The white haired teen continued to yell, making plenty of noise, but not a bit of it understandable.

Kurenai leaned out into the main area again, finger pressed firmly against her lips.

"Shush."

--------------

After several minutes of digging, Hidan was finally removed from underneath the bookcases and books piled on his body, sore and unhappy. The senior was intact, minus several cuts and bruises, but he blatantly _refused_ to let them be treated in any form or way.

They decided it best to leave the library after that little incident, if decided was a synonym for being kicked out by Kurenai.

Hidan had completely given up on touring the young students around, opting instead to lead them up and down the various hallways, muttering to himself the whole way. Whatever the middle schoolers caught of his ramblings usually involved a swear word, Jashin, or a death threat directed towards a certain ponytailed Nara who didn't seem, from Hidan's point of view, sorry in the least. (In reality, after about five unsuccessful apologies, Shikamaru gave up on the white haired teen and filed him under his ever growing list of troublesome people.)

"This is pointless," Neji whispered to the others. "He's not paying us any attention so let's just show ourselves around the building."

Shikamaru shrugged. "Might as well."

"But, w-won't we get in tr-trouble?" Hinata asked, already fiddling with her hands.

"Your call," Neji told her as she watched the two boys walk off. Hinata glanced between her options. She didn't like the idea of aimlessly roaming the high school, but she also didn't like the idea of being left alone with Hidan.

Swallowing a lump in her throat, Hinata ran off to catch up with her cousin.

It would be a while later when Hidan finally dropped his rant long enough to turn around.

"What the fuck?!

------------

"Hm, where to go, where to go," muttered Deidara as he looked about. He watched the young students for a second, Ino immediately averting her gaze, still embarrassed about her earlier misunderstanding regarding his gender.

Naruto shifted glances between the two of them. "Are you _sure_ you're not re-"

"Yes!" both long haired blonds interjected.

"Just asking -tebayo," he grumbled. Gaara merely rolled his teal eyes.

Deidara sighed. "Well, since Tsunade's _forcing _me into this, un." He looked around a little more. "This way, I guess," he told them and began walking.

They hadn't gotten too far when they encountered three students, two boys and a girl, like the set up of Deidara's own group.

"Neji! Shikamaru! Hinata!" Naruto yelled down the hall. They stopped what they were doing, giving the others time to catch up. Hinata quickly turned a light shade of pink at his presence.

"What happened to your guide? That white haired guy," Ino asked.

"Hidan," the sophomore filled in.

"Yeah, him."

"He was being troublesome, so we ditched him," Shikamaru answered with a yawn.

"Hidan's always troublesome, un," the blond commented. "Word of advice though. Don't let him catch you. If he does, all hell will break loose." He studied the worried faces they now displayed for a moment, then added a "See ya, un!" before leaving with his own group.

The awol trio watched them leave, the younger blonds waving cheerful goodbyes. Gaara did nothing as usual.

"Well, that's that," the brown haired Hyuuga commented, going back to their roaming. Hinata stayed put, then slowly began to drift towards the other group. "Come on Hinata," Neji said, snatching his cousin away by the arm.

-----------------

Deidara, after that brief meeting, still had no idea where to take them for the so-called "tour", which was really just detention using torture in the form of three middle schoolers.

He sighed. "I'm supposed to show you the school, but the school's so boring, un. I know! I'll show you guys the exterior!"

The blond grinned. Any excuse to be outside was good enough for him. He led them downstairs and around the corner, focused on the exit at the end, as indicated by the glowing red sign above it. As he reached the door, he pushed on it, but nothing happened.

"Dammit! The door's looked." He pushed harder at the door, going as far as to apply his full weight against it, but it refused to budge. The kids simply stood back and watched him. Deidara sighed and concentrated on the map of the building he'd etched into his mind, looking for the next closest route. "One of you get that door over there, un," he told them, gesturing towards the opposite side of the corridor. Gaara, who'd been the closest at the moment, was the one to open it and hold it for the rest of the group. Deidara let the other two blonds go by before he headed in himself.

The sophomore had only gotten partially through the doorway when Gaara decided he didn't feel like holding it anymore and let go.

Deidara learned two things in that moment.

One: The school's doors hurt like hell when they closed on your arm.

Two: Redheads were evil.

The latter had been a long running theory of his after knowing Sasori for so long. Gaara confirmed it by watching the blond remove his injured limb from the door's grip with a bored expression and turning away as if it never happened.

"You nearly broke my arm!" Deidara hissed.

Gaara's response remained unchanged.

Deidara glared at him a moment longer while rubbing at the sore spot. _Why'd it have to catch right __**there**__?! _he thought. Naruto began to open his mouth to comment.

"Nobody say anything, un!" he snapped, silencing the retort before it could come out.

"May we continue?" Gaara asked in a flat tone, daring to challenge the blond's statement.

Deidara groaned and began walking. "So evil."

----------------

Sasori sneezed.

"Bless you," Kankurou said while Sasori rubbed at his nose. "They say when you sneeze that someone's talking about you."

"I doubt that," he answered in an icy voice. The redhead glanced over his shoulder at Kiba and Sakura, who were still arguing. Shaking his head, he turned back around as they neared their next destination. So far he'd already shown (pointed out was probably a better term) them the gym and the library. They would've gone inside the latter, but a rather loud crash from within steered the group away.

Sasori walked up to a door on the right and peered in the room. "Looks like he's here." He opened the door and led them inside. "Okay, this is the woodshop." He glanced over to a desk in the corner. "And that's Yamato-sensei."

A brown haired teacher with piercing black eyes looked up from the paper he was writing. "Hello Sasori. Are you helping with the middle schoolers today?" He nodded grimly, watching the three of them roam about the room.

"Hey Sasori, is this one of your puppets?" The redhead blinked and walked towards Kankurou, who was leaning over a life-sized mannequin with no defining features.

"That thing? It's just something I did out of boredom." He moved closer and tugged at one of the hair-thin strings attached to the puppet, making it lift it's arm. "It still needs work."

"Oh. I still have those three puppets you made back in Suna, you know."

Sasori gave him a look that said 'why?', but didn't voice the inquiry.

"What does this do?" Kiba asked, reaching for a lever in the vicinity of a large saw.

"I wouldn't touch that if I were you." Kiba spun around to find himself face-to-face with Yamato, whose expression had gone completely blank, eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets. He backed up several feet.

The lights suddenly dimmed and Yamato pulled out a flashlight, illuminating his face to add to the eeriness. The eighth graders huddled together.

He spoke again. "A former student of mine fooled with that lever too. He lost his hand because of it." The trio jumped as he moved even closer, trembling slightly. Sasori, who was not one to be intimidated, remained unfazed.

The teacher started laughing, shutting his flashlight off and returning the lighting to normal. "That's always fun to do. Don't worry kids, I'm just joking." They slowly nodded. Sasori sighed and practically dragged them out of the classroom, where they soon snapped out of their daze.

"I think I might take that class," Kankurou told them.

"I'm not," Sakura replied. "Well, maybe if Sasuke does..."

"What is it with you and Sasuke?!" Kiba snapped. "Of all guys, why him? He's the biggest jerk on the planet!"

Sakura's face went blank and she lifted her hands together, cracking the knuckles on each hand. Kiba went wide eyed and took a few steps back as Sakura approached, arm reeled back, ready to strike. As the pink haired girl's fist came flying towards him, Kiba jumped to the side last minute, the attack zooming past him....

...and right towards Sasori.

Her punch connected dead on with his right arm, with enough force to push the redhead back slightly. Sakura's hands immediately flew to her mouth to hide a gasp.

"Ohmygod, areyouokay?!" she blurted out quickly, unsure of how the high schooler would react. Sasori glared at her for a moment and walked off.

"Wow, he must be stronger than he looks," Kiba commented, feeling he was safe from her wrath. "Naruto told me first hand exactly how hard your punches are."

"That's not it," she said as they continued to follow the sophomore. "Something felt off, unnatural almost."

Kiba snorted. "You're exaggerating," he told her and went to catch up with the others. Sakura lagged behind for a little while longer before she quickened her own pace, unaware of the bruises beginning to form on her knuckles.

-------------------------------------------------

Meh, kinda short compared to the last two chapters, but after I typed this, there wasn't really much I could add to it.

My inspiration for finishing up this chapter was Hidan and Kakuzu in Shippuuden!!!


	11. Tours, Part 2

After a few more twists and turns, the blond group (plus one redhead) finally made it outside. It was one of those rare days where the sun was out and not obstructed by any bothersome clouds, which was why Deidara wanted to be outside to enjoy it, instead of cooped up in the building.

"You didn't mention how hot it was," Ino whined, retreating into the shadow of the building."Hey, um, darn, what's his name again...." Naruto muttered to himself. "You!" he called out, giving up.

"You?" Deidara asked quizzically.

"Yeah. Why are you wearing armbands if it's so hot, dattebayo?"

The inquiry surprised him. In Akatsuki they had an unwritten rule: Don't ask why the other members did and wore the things they did, and they won't ask you. That's just how things were. Nobody questioned why Pain had so many piercings or why Konan pinned her hair up with a paper flower. Nobody asked about Kakuzu's preference to cover every part of his body except his eyes and hands and nobody _dared_ to ask why Hidan always bore his chest (probably cause they didn't want to know). Itachi's red tinted glasses would forever remain a mystery and Zetsu would forever _be_ a mystery himself. Kisame's general appearance was a topic to be left alone and the reasons for Sasori's dress-code of long sleeve shirts or jackets and fingerless gloves would be kept to himself.

Deidara was no exception to the rule either. His usual outfit consisted of a long sleeve shirt and either jeans or capris, depending on the weather. When he didn't have a long sleeve shirt on, he equipped his persona with arm-warmers that he wore over his elbow, covering most of the limb, like now.

The blond shrugged. "Why are you wearing a bright orange tracksuit, un?" he countered.

"Touché," Naruto replied.

-------------

After sitting through five minutes of complaints (It's hot, ttebayo; there's nothing to do out here; the building has AC, etc.) and almost being spotted by a teacher, Deidara finally decided that they should return indoors. He spotted a silver haired man a little ways away with a headband covering his left eye and his face masked from the nose down by a scarf. The stranger was heading inside the building and just as he was beginning to close the door, the sophomore ran up and called out to him.

"Hey, hold the door-!"

SLAM

Once again Deidara found himself wrenching his arm, this time the right one, from between the door and the door frame.

The man turned around and regarded him with one eye. "Oh, sorry about that," he said in apology.

"Am I being punished for something, un?!" Deidara exclaimed.

"I said I was sorry..."

That's about when the trio decided they wanted to catch up. "Kakashi-sensei, what're you doing here?"

"Hm? Oh, hello Naruto. I was scheduled to come here with you guys for the tour," he replied.

"Really?! Wait, I didn't see you on the ride up."

"Because he wasn't there," Gaara explained.

"Well, I might've been late for the bus..."The three eighth graders let out a collected sigh, expecting that kind of response.

With the three of them distracted, Deidara pulled himself to the side and tugged at the bands around his still throbbing arms, pulling them down enough to examine the damage.

The flesh at the impact point was red and sore, and beginning to darken slightly.

_That's gonna bruise in the morning, un,_ he thought sourly.

As focus shifted again, Deidara quickly pulled his armbands back up, hoping no one had gotten the chance to see the black threads stitched into both of his arms.

----------

The hall was quiet.

Only the sound of footsteps could be heard, echoing down the empty corridor. Well, empty minus the four teens taking a casual stroll down it's path.

After a little while, TenTen began to believe that of the three males she was with at the moment, none of them could form more than a sentence fragment, and she was lucky to even get that much.

Especially where Itachi was concerned.

The junior that was _supposed _to be touring them spoke in mostly one to three word phrases, so nobel-prize winning statements such as "The cafeteria" or "Office" followed by an unenthusiastic gesture towards said feature of the school were quite common.

Sasuke definitely wasn't aiding the situation in any way. The younger of the brothers insisted on glaring at Itachi the entire time and mumbling things under his breath that the others couldn't and probably didn't need to hear. Itachi would occasionally turn to look at his brother, stopping mid-sentence (using the word 'sentence' very loosely) at the glower he was receiving and turn back around.

Shino was too busy looking for any roaches or other insects along the walls and floor (because _all_ schools are infested with them). He made the mistake of pointing out a rather large cockroach to TenTen, who then screamed and pulled out a pencil sharpened to a deadly point. She threw it at aforementioned bug, impaling it with perfect aim.

Shino went from _considering_ speaking to her to flat out refusing to.

"So, um, Itachi," TenTen began, attempting to spark some form of conversation, "is there anything interesting about the school that you could mention?"

The raven remained quiet, pondering the question.

"No," he replied after a few moments.

Mission failed.

Sasuke's incoherent mutterings could be faintly heard in the background. Shino spotted another bug and made sure not to mention it to the group's lone female this time. She, on the meantime, sighed in frustration, wanting to bang her head against the wall. It was times like this that being locked in a room with Lee was more favorable than the current situation...

...speaking of Lee...

"Do you know Guy-sensei?" The question was sudden and caught Kisame slightly by surprise. He looked down at the green-clad teenager, who was staring right back up at him, an eager glint in his black eyes.

"Yes..." the older teen cautiously answered.

Bad idea.

"Isn't he the most youthful person on the face of this entire planet?!" The words nearly flew out of his mouth like a well shaken can of soda being opened. The eager look in his eyes was now replaced by a raging fire.

Kisame smartly decided not to answer that inquiry.

Instead he asked something of Lee. "Are you Guy-sensei's son or something?"

"If only I were that lucky. No, I am merely his humble student, striving to one day be just like him!"

Crickets.

Temari coughed, her expression suggesting that she shared Kisame's opinion on the teacher. The awkward silence was broken only when Chouji began to munch on his chips again.

"So, what's this?" Lee asked, poking at the large instrument case on his back. Kisame jerked it away from him.

"A guitar," he answered. "Don't touch it."

"Cool! Are you going to play it for us?"

"No."

"Oh."

More crickets.

It was Chouji, once again, who broke the silence, doing something food related.

"Where's the -munch- cafeteria?" he asked between bites.

Kisame grinned. "Follow me."

---------------

The best time to be in the cafeteria, the junior decided, was before the lunchtime rush. Sounds of the lunchroom staff getting things ready could easily be heard in the quiet room and the scent of the day's meal emanated from within the kitchen.

Chouji took a big whiff. "Smells like string beans, mashed potatoes, and chicken."

The blue haired teen nodded appreciatively. "You're good."

"As a connoisseur, it is my job to be able to identify food by smell alone," he commented.

"Oh brother," the blond girl said, rolling her eyes.

Because of the time of day their tours were being held, the eighth graders had already been promised free lunch, courtesy of the high school. Kisame managed to earn himself an early sample of today's menu because he was helping them out, but mostly because the lunch ladies knew if they didn't, they were never going to get rid of him.

Temari poked at the beans with her plastic fork. "Was the goal to drown the beans?" she questioned, lifting one up only for it to slide off the utensil and fall back into the tray with a small splash.

"Don't question it, just eat it." The junior told her, already scarfing down his food. Chouji observed him, noting that the older teen was eating faster than he was. With a competitive flare in his eye, Chouji quickened his pace, watching Kisame's reaction of speeding up too.

Lee glanced between both teens. "I shall not be defeated!" he shouted and began to wolf down his own lunch.

Needless to say, Temari was thoroughly disgusted.

"Men," she exclaimed, getting up to throw her tray in the garbage bin. When she returned, all three boys had finished off their lunch and were currently arguing over who came in first.

She scoffed at them and went to the vending machine to get something that was actually edible.

----------

Shortly afterwards, a lone Hidan strolled into the lunchroom and slumped into the chair next to Kisame, one foot in an adjacent chair, the other on the floor.

"Where's your group?" Kisame asked him.

"The fuckers ditched me," the senior replied in a low growl. As if they were called, said trio casually walked into the cafeteria, blissfully unaware of the infuriated tour guide that had gotten up and was slowly approaching them.

"I pray for those kids," Kisame commented as a stream of curses went flying across the room. The other three didn't take the situation as calmly as he did, all staring rather wide eyed.

"Is he always like that?" Chouji was the first one to work up the nerve to ask.

The junior shook his head before replying. "Worse."

Later on, the three other groups found their way into the cafeteria and got their lunch. The high schoolers all moved to a separate table to talk amongst themselves, leaving the younger students to split back into their usual group of friends.

"Anyone got any ice, un?"

Sasori lazily tossed him the orange juice they'd put on his tray. Deidara took the mostly frozen beverage and applied it to his upper arm. **(1)**

"What happened?" Kisame asked.

"Doors. Hurt." was all the blond said, switching the carton to his other arm. They chose not to request details. "Well, did anyone else have _fun_ on their tour, un?" Deidara questioned, bitterly accenting the word fun.

"I got fucking buried under some damn books!" Hidan yelled rather loudly. In the background, the two Hyuugas could be seen wincing slightly (Shikamaru didn't because he had fallen asleep).

"I'd wondered what that crash was..." the redhead mused.

"Shut up! What happened to _you_, puppet?"

Sasori glared at the unwanted nickname. "I make puppets, I'm not one myself," he hissed, unconsciously rubbing at his arm through his long sleeves, even though the punch hadn't hurt him.

"I guess my group wasn't all too bad," Kisame commented.

"What about Mini-Guy over there?" the senior questioned.

"I think he's a failed cloning attempt."

"Ew, who would want to clone Guy-sensei, un?"

That was a question no one could answer.

"And what about you Itachi?" the blue haired teen inquired of his classmate.

Itachi didn't reply.

As expected.

The Akatsuki let out a collective sigh.

"So...Deidara... why didn't you tell us your younger sister bore such a striking resemblance to you?" Kisame asked cheekily.

"Shut up, un! She's not my sister!"

"Cousin then." He dodged the flying juice carton as it neared his head, snickering at the now fuming blond. An angered Deidara was something the junior always found amusing.

Sasori, on the other hand, did not find it amusing in the least. Probably because he was the one who actually had to deal with the enraged sophomore.

Putting a hand on the blond's shoulder, he eased him back into his seat. "Deidara, don't kill Kisame. We all know he's an idiot."

Disregarding the insult completely, Kisame continued. "What's her name again? I seem to have forgotten." Deidara pushed against his restraint, namely Sasori's hand, but to no avail. "I'm just playing, Deidara."

"Un," the blond grumbled angrily, but he had calmed down enough for his classmate to let him go. "Danna, can I _please_ kill him?"

"No." The blond frowned and folded his arms.

"And what about you Sasori?" He gave Kisame a questioning glance. "You must share some relation with that little redhead over there. He looks like a younger version of you. And I think he's one of the ones from Suna Middle."

The older redhead shot him a glare. "On second thought, go right ahead."

Kisame leaned away from the approaching blond, who wore a murderous grin on his face. "Uh, actually, I just remembered something very important I need to attend to. See ya!" Faster than Kakuzu could swipe your wallet, Kisame had disappeared out the door.

"He's a speedy little bastard when he wants to be," Hidan commented.

"Guitar's still here," Itachi pointed out. The others studied the instrument, which was leaning against the now empty chair, looking abandoned.

"Let's mess with it, un!" Deidara exclaimed, reaching for the case.

"Remember what happened last time?" The hand quickly retreated as it's blond owner attempted to drive away the horrible memories from an earlier attempt to defile Kisame's instrument. He rubbed at his palms, remembering how long they were sore and calloused for holding that thing only a few moments.

"What did he even do to that thing?!"

"Something to keep idiots like you from touching it," Hidan answered, watching as Kisame returned, after deciding the threat against his life had passed.

"So, what's I miss?" he asked, resting his hand against the guitar case, as if showing that he was the only one who could touch it without being harmed.

Deidara glowered.

"What? I was only joking!"

He gave a light snort at the totally clueless blue haired teen and decided to let it go for now.

"How much longer do we have to escort those brats around?" Sasori asked for a much needed topic change.

Once again they didn't know the answer to that.

Except for Itachi, who just knew things (and having a little brother who brought home the letter about the trip doesn't hurt). Either way, he wasn't telling.

Luckily for them the person with the answers chose to enter the cafeteria shortly afterwards.

"Attention!"

Every teen in the room was snapped from their original conversations to listen to the principal.

"I'm hear to announce that the tours are coming to a close."

------

**(1) back at my middle school, the orange juice was either frozen solid, or full of ice chunks. **


	12. Goodbye and Good Riddance

**I'm finally caught up!!!! Thank you all for being so patient, so here's your long awaited new chapter.**

--------

The tours were coming to a close.

The statement itself was almost a blessing to the students. For some it meant getting out of an unfamiliar environment. Others saw it as a means of escape from borderline psychotic and/or homicidal high schoolers. Said high schoolers interpreted the sentence as freedom from annoying eighth graders. From any point of view, it was good news.

A few cheered out in joy. Even an enthusiastic 'fuck yeah!' was added into the mix.

Tsunade's evil glare returned because of that.

"Wha?" Shikamaru groggily asked, shaken from his nap.

"Tours are ending," Chouji told him between handfuls of potato chips.

"Oh. M'kay," he murmured and went right back to sleep.

Tsunade coughed. "You have about ten minutes left, but after that, I expect all of you back in the front . And I do mean _all_ of you." The last statement was directed to the five oldest students as she made her exit, eyes on them until she was out the door.

Deidara slowly pushed away from the table, making as little movement as he could muster. "Well, I should get going ..." he trailed off and began to stand up. Without any other movement or change in expression, Sasori's arm reached out and grabbed the blond by his shirt collar, pulling the sophomore back into his chair. "Darn," he grumbled. "But what are we going to do for ten minutes, un? Stare at each other?"

"I vote we do something about those little shits over there," Hidan commented.

Deidara thoughtfully put a hand to his chin. "Come to think of it, I need to get back at that raccoon, un."

"Rac...coon?"

"What?! He looks like a raccoon! Seriously, does that kid even know the meaning of the word 'sleep', un?"

The others remained silent, leaving the blond to his incoherent ramblings about ring-eyed mammals and explosions.

"Well, since Blondie's busy-"

"Don't call me Blondie, un!!!"

"-let's just come up with our own plan," Hidan proposed.

"Wow, you didn't curse in that entire sentence."

"SHUT THE FUCK UP SHARK!"

"Does vengeance really need to be sought against eighth graders?" Sasori inquired, removing a finger from the ear Hidan had so courteously yelled into.

"And why the hell not?"

"Because they are merely a nuisance, which isn't worth all the trouble of retaliation," the redhead responded as he absentmindedly tugged at a strand of blond hair that had escaped from his friend's ponytail. Said friend uttered a curious 'Un', pulled out of whatever plans he'd been forming in his mind.

"So _that's_ how he deals with Deidara," the blue haired junior mumbled.

"I heard that."

Kisame shied away from the blond, earning a glare from Itachi when he accidentally bumped into him, which went unnoticed by the older junior.

"Deidara, what did the..._raccoon_....even do to you?"

"He nearly broke my arm off, un!!"

"Is that all?" Kisame asked. Deidara stared at him, dumbfounded. "Tis but a flesh wound," he quoted goofily.

The Akatsuki just sat there, staring at Kisame as he grinned at his own stupid joke.

The blond groaned. "Not. Funny."

"Oh come on, you practically set yourself up for that!"

"You think I _wanted_ to get my arm caught in the door-Ow! Danna! Quit pulling my hair, un!"

The eighth graders were staring at the high schoolers now, fully convinced their tour-guides were insane.

Disregarding the young students, Deidara shooed Sasori's hands away from his hair. Sasori smirked ever so slightly, having successfully forced the blond to relent his fight with the older male, and crossed his arms contently. He leaned back in his chair, eyes closed as if he was asleep.

"Can we get back on the fucking topic now?"

"Why? You're the only one who wants revenge on the kids," Kisame commented.

"I do!"

"Deidara, you want revenge on anyone you don't like," Sasori interjected, eyes still closed.

"Speaking of which, I need to get back at that white haired teacher for my other arm too."

Kisame's mouth opened to make another comment.

"If you make one more Monty Python reference I _swear_ there'll be a bomb in your bookbag tomorrow un."

He quickly shut it.

"Ten minutes."

Attention was swiftly drawn to Itachi, who'd finally said something.

"It's been ten minutes," he repeated.

Hidan looked to a clock on the wall for confirmation. "Fuck! He's right."

"Guess all your plans are down the drain."

"And what about _yours?!"_ he retorted as the five got up out of their chairs.

The sophomore shrugged. "All my clay's in my locker anyway, un." The Akatsuki stood, watching the middle schoolers to see if they would catch on and get up as well.

They didn't.

"MOVE YOUR LAZY ASSES!" Hidan hollered to them, which quickly put things into motion. The high schoolers herded them out of the cafeteria like cattle and took up the rear as they headed to the front, occasionally having to point the students in the right direction.

"Great, time for another encounter with Tsunade-kouchousensei."

"Doesn't she seem crankier than usual, un?"

"Maybe it's that time of the month."

"Hey Deidara, remember when Tobi-"

"SHUT UP!"

Sasori half listened in on the conversation, taking note of the people around him, or rather, the people who _weren't_ around him until he came to a conclusion.

"Guys, where did Hidan go?"

---------

Once back in the lobby area, the students were split up according to the schools they attended, leaving twelve Konoha students and three Suna. They were moved over to where their teachers were waiting.

Deidara glared at Kakashi, but another tug at his ponytail forced him to stop.

Tsunade patrolled the grounds, marking off names on an attendance roster to make sure everyone that was supposed to be there was. She stopped for a moment and stood in front of her students.

Her **four** students.

"Why am I not surprised?" she shook her head and kept moving. "Everyone's present and accounted for." She paused. "Well, almost everyone." She glared at the quartet who, for once, were completely innocent of any crime.

"Hey, _he _ditched **us!**_" _Kisame insisted.

"I'll deal with Hidan later," Tsunade muttered and went to talk with the visitors, leaving the four of them to talk amongst themselves.

"He's screwed, un."

"Asuma-sensei keeps finding him in the hallway when he's supposed to be in class," Kisame mused. "Hey Itachi, what'd he say he was going to do to him if he was caught skipping again?"

"Decapitate him?" the raven offered.

Kisame winced at the idea. "N-no, I don't think that's it." Itachi merely shrugged. The blue haired boy's eyes widened. "Do you _want_ to see Hidan decapitated?!"

Itachi pondered the inquiry for a moment. "It'd be interesting," he replied, earning another disturbed look from his classmate.

Deidara, in his mind, pictured Hidan's severed head sitting on a table, yelling and cursing until it lost balance and fell off. He laughed out loud at the thought. "Even beheaded, he'd still probably be swearing up a storm!" he said between chuckles.

Kisame sighed. "Is everyone in our club psycho?"

"Pretty much," Sasori said, watching as Deidara came around, put an arm around Kisame's neck and pulled him down to his level, which was a feat in itself considering Kisame was over six feet tall and the blond was only five foot five.

"Kisame, you know you're psycho too, un. Weren't you the one who tried to hit Guy-sensei over the head with your guitar?"

He coughed and eased out of the sophomore's grasp, returning to his full height. "That's... another issue entirely," he said, tapping at the birthmarks on his cheeks.

"Says you, un." The blond went to stand beside his classmate and watched the students and their teachers file out of the building, Tsunade keeping an eye on the situation for unknown reasons. "When is she going to let us go? We've been standing here too long." No one answered him. "Maybe I should just leave like Hidan did, un," he grumbled.

"You might loose your head to Asuma-sensei," Sasori chuckled.

"I already almost lost my arms. Don't!" The last part was directed to Kisame, who was readying himself for another corny reference.

"Damn," he said in response to being foiled. "Fine, ruin my fun."

"The rest of us can't take much more of your _fun_," the redhead informed him.

Kisame frowned at the artists, who weren't paying attention to him anymore. He shook his head and decided that Deidara had been right about them being there too long.

So he decided to do something about it.

"Tsunade-kouchousensei!"

The woman turned around slowly. "What?" she hissed.

Kisame flinched at her misdirected rage, but continued. "Can we go now?"

She blinked. "Huh?" Tsunade looked over her shoulder, noting that the visiting students were loading onto the bus now. "Oh yeah, sure. You're dismissed."

They didn't need to be told twice.

"But go to class!" she yelled as the teenagers quickly disappeared down the hall.

"Um, Tsunade-" the vice principal began, tentatively approaching the older woman, clipboard in hand as always.

"They're not going to class, are they Shizune?"

"Probably not," the dark haired woman answered.

Tsunade sighed. "Why do I even bother?"

--------------

Just as the administrators had predicted, the Akatsuki hadn't gone to class. Instead they'd opted for the field, blending into the portion of the gym class that wasn't allowed to participate in the activity because they hadn't dressed out.

For the record, the activity was running laps all period, which explained why a majority of the class was still in their everyday clothes.

Hidan, who'd escaped another encounter with Asuma, head intact, caught up with them shortly afterwards. They spent most of the time talking and fighting with each other. Once or twice they had to snap at the freshmen that shared the bleachers with them for butting in on their arguments.

"Sempai!"

Speaking of freshmen.

Deidara nearly fell backwards off the rickety bleachers. He hooked his legs around the seat last minute, leaving the blond hanging upside-down, forced to stare at the bandaged face of a certain ninth grader.

"What do you want Tobi, un?" He squinted his left eye, unaccustomed to it being fully exposed, the bang that usually covered it now hanging under his head.

"Nothing. I was just surprised to see you guys here," he answered, adjusting his hat.

"Yeah, well if anyone asks, you _didn't_ see us," the blond told him while he pulled himself up.

"Got it," Tobi said. "But can I at least ask why you're here?"

"Well," Deidara started, deciding to at least humor the freshman.

"Akatsuki business. Top secret," Sasori answered, ignoring the glare he was receiving.

"Oh," Tobi mumbled, slightly discouraged since he was out of the loop. "Wait a minute-" He would've countered, realizing that he was part of Akatsuki, but a loud whistle and an approaching coach forced the underclassman to return to his laps before he got in trouble.

"That was close," Itachi observed once the coach had passed them.

"I almost forgot why I hated this fucking class," Hidan grumbled, nearly deaf from the screech of the whistle.

"I liked it," Kisame offered.

"Well whoopdy-fricken-doo for you then," he snapped. With no remarks to add onto Hidan's comment, the group went silent for a brief moment, which lasted just long enough for someone to approach them.

"Um, guys?"

The quintet jumped at the sudden statement, a couple nearly falling over into the group of freshman in front of them. After recovering from the initial shock, they turned to find none other than Zetsu standing behind the bleachers.

"Zetsu, try not to go around giving people heart attacks," Sasori advised.

The green haired boy tilted his head curiously, but shrugged it off. "Leader is requesting an OOS meeting tomorrow at noon at the usual place."

"Understood," they told him.

Zetsu nodded and, with his message delivered, wandered off in the direction he came.

"ZETSU!"

Even at a distance the other Akatsuki could see the yellow eyes widen as Zetsu was practically glomped by Tobi. Deidara snickered as the sophomore pried himself away from Tobi and stopped for a good while (probably to relay the message and explain to Tobi exactly what the _usual place_ was), before quickly making his escape.

"Holy shit! How the hell does he manage to find us like that?"

"Lord knows."

"Jashin!" Hidan corrected.

"Whatever, un." He directed his attention again to Tobi, who waved at them, grinning broadly. The coach chased him off again. The skippers, who had to hide themselves once more as the teacher walked past, decided it best to leave before their luck ran out and he caught them.

----------

The Akatsuki weren't entirely sure why they were all gathered in Itachi's living room on a Saturday afternoon, staring at a door that would reveal the hallway if opened. Itachi's house was always the usual place for OOS meetings (short for Out-of-School) because the raven lived alone with his little brother, who could easily be kicked out and sent to a friend's house if need be.

"What could possibly be so important?" Sasori grumbled, already irritated that he was being forced to wait. The fact that only five minutes had passed was irrelevant to the impatient redhead.

Konan sighed. "Honestly, even I don't know."

"Maybe he got a new piercing," Kisame joked.

"Itachi better hide the magnets then."

The Uchiha blinked in response. Nobody wanted a repeat of their meeting last year when Pain had gotten a bit too close to Sasuke's science project, which dealt with electromagnetism. They spent well over an hour trying to separate the president's face from a charged iron bar.

Tobi, out of the loop once more, occupied himself with looking around the room. He stopped to pick up an old picture of Itachi, Sasuke, and their parents. The freshman stared at the photo until realization dawned on him.

"Itachi, is your last name Uchiha?"

That was when the Akatsuki made a startling discovery....

"YOU'RE COUSINS?!"

Tobi grinned sheepishly and rubbed at his neck. "I kinda thought Itachi looked familiar, but I didn't want to say anything. My dad's Madara Uchiha, his uncle." **(1)**

"Isn't your last name Iiko?" Sasori asked.

"My mom's maiden name. It _was_ Uchiha until Dad left. That's why I'm not really in touch with his side of the family anymore."

"You knew the whole time, didn't you?" Kisame whispered to the raven.

Itachi shrugged. "He was at my parents' funeral."

"Are you all quite finished now?" came the voice from behind the door.

Konan rapped at the wooden frame, silently urging him to hurry up. The door flung open and the president stepped into view.

They all stared in disbelief.

Pain stood before them, with his usual appearance: black overcoat, orange hair, grey eyes and too many piercings. However, instead of his short, spiked hairstyle, it was much longer and pulled into a high ponytail. A lone bang hung off to the right. His usual piercings had been replaced by a long bar through his nose, rounded off at the ends, a stud between his eyes, and six outlining the edge of his jaw.

"Told he got got a new one," Kisame muttered.

Konan put a hand to her face. "Pain..."

"Well, what do you think?"

"We can still tell it's you!" Hidan roared from the sidelines.

Pain frowned. "That's not the purpose of this."

"Then what the fuck is?"

"You'll find out later."

Hidan grumbled slightly. "What kind of dumbass answer is that?"

"Shut up Hidan," Kakuzu said, speaking up for the first time, only to get growled at by his fellow senior.

"I think he kinda looks like you, Deidara-sempai," Tobi said over Hidan's swearing and yelling.

Deidara winced as Kakuzu silenced Hidan as one might an alarm clock, by slamming down on the top, before he responded to Tobi. "No! We're not going through that again," he stated, remembering his earlier issue with that Ino girl, and promptly ended the conversation.

Poor Tobi was left clueless for the third time that day.

"If I may have your attention. There are still matters to attend to. Now, I have four other _forms_, which I'm still working out the concept of, so I'll have to reveal those later. Konan." He handed the girl a piece of paper. "Here's a list of things I need you to pick up." She looked at the paper, noting the first thing written on it.

_This paper is not to be used for origami._

The girl frowned at the message.

"To help you, I'm sending along the artists, Hidan, and..." he scanned the room. "Tobi. The rest of us will stay here and discuss things that need to be done and possible plans."

"What?! Why the hell do I have to go? And why Tobi?!"

"I'm sending you so _I _don't have to deal with you. And Tobi's new, so this is a good opportunity for him." Pain pulled out his car keys and tossed them to Konan. "You have two hours, be on time."

She caught the keys and nodded at him. "Come on guys," she said and led them out to Pein's car.

"Shotgun!" Deidara called out, slipping into the passenger's side seat, forcing the others to clamber into the back, Tobi in the middle. "So, where are we even going, un?" he asked as Konan started the ignition and pulled out the driveway.

She smiled. "To the mall."

------

**(1) No, Tobi isn't Madara in this fic, he's the goofy idiot he was when he was first introduced. And since Madara created that alias, it technically makes him his father (Don't question my logic).**


	13. At the Mall

The Akatsuki members (plus one subordinate) got a few odd looks when they all strolled into the mall. When a group comes along consisting of a blue-haired girl, a boy with bandages covering half his face, an effeminate blond, a height-challenged redhead, and a white-haired boy who wasn't wearing a shirt under his hoodie, heads are bound to turn.

Konan, briefly regarding the bystanders before ignoring them all together, pulled out the list she was given and scanned through the items.

She laughed.

"What's so funny?"

A few more giggles escaped before she could answer. "This is the same list of items he was looking for last week. We already have this stuff."

The others face-faulted.

"Leader's not very organized, is he?" Sasori commented.

Konan shook her head. "Not at all."

---------

Since Pain had given them two hours, under the pretense that they actually had errands to run for him, the group decided to make the best out of their free time. The quintet roamed aimlessly throughout the mall, occasionally stopping in a store to look around.

"Look what I found!" Hidan had proclaimed while the group had been loitering in the manga section of Borders. When their attention was put on him, the silver haired boy held up a black notebook with the words 'Death Note' inscribed on the cover in white.

They all took a few steps back, but Hidan had already moved to the register to purchase his find, sporting a demonic grin that was plastered on his face even after they'd exited the book store. The others allowed themselves to relax only when the notebook was put away and Hidan's psycho-mode was switched off.

They then took some time to see what people were selling at the booths. One had a large collection of plushies on display, which grabbed Konan's attention. Sasori inspected the hand puppets mixed in with the stuffed animals, but quickly lost interest. Deidara, on the other hand, made it his priority to _avoid _said puppets, much to Sasori's bemusement. Tobi, like Konan, took an interest in the plush toys and disappeared behind the cart, only to return later with a pink puffball with giant feet and a face.

When questioned about the purchase, all the freshman had to say was "Kirby is manly."

They left that booth to avoid anymore awkward situations, first having to forcibly drag Deidara away after the blond had spotted a nearby sign advertising fireworks.

A similar event took place earlier when the quintet found themselves looking around in Gamestop. It was there that they discovered videogames performed some form of hypnosis on a certain orange-hatted freshman and he had to be removed from the area immediately.

They continued their walk, making sure to avoid anyone selling plushies, videogames, or explosives.

-------------

When Hidan made a remark about dying of hunger, the group realized it was well past lunchtime and made their way to the food court. Tobi promptly journeyed to the Japanese restaurant and Hidan followed suite. Sasori watched the two of them with a shake of his head and went to find the place with the shortest line, returning soon afterwards with a box of fries. Deidara and Konan both decided they weren't hungry, but the blond ended up ordering a milkshake. They went to find an open table, finally locating one towards the back of the plaza, and waited around for the others to catch up.

Hidan was the last to arrive, practically slamming his styrofoam tray on the table.

"The hell did you guys disappear to?! I turn my back for one minute and everyone's gone."

They shrugged.

"Sorry Hidan," Tobi said, opening the box to reveal his food. Hidan glared and violently stabbed into his noodles with his fork before putting some in his mouth. Tobi repeated the action with the chicken he ordered, but in a far calmer manner. Sasori silently chewed on french fries in an attempt to block out the loud senior.

"Hey Tobi, can I have a piece of chicken?" Konan suddenly asked, after examining what everyone had ordered for a moment. He nodded and pushed the tray over for her to pluck one off for herself. She smiled and thanked him.

Deidara tried a similar technique on Sasori, minus the asking, only to have his hand smacked away by the redhead. Sasori rolled his eyes at him, but handed over a fry anyway.

The blond stared at the fried potato, slightly surprised. What he had wanted was a reaction from his friend, the french fry, not so much. Deidara took the small offering anyway, deciding that Sasori's display of kindness was a rare, almost historical, event.

"How about instead of getting a milkshake like you always do, you actually order food next time we're at a fast food place," he suggested.

"But I like milkshakes," Deidara retorted, blowing into the concoction until the air pressure broke the surface and began to make a bubbling noise. Sasori glared and threw the straw's wrapper at him, which the blond had balled up upon removing the utensil.

"Alright you two," Konan said after snatching another piece of chicken from Tobi.

"You said you weren't hungry," the freshman pointed out.

"I'm not. This is just good chicken."

"True. You know, wouldn't it be great to die eating a piece of chicken?"

Everyone froze in their tracks to stare at Tobi.

"What? Think about it, you'd live the last few minutes of your life happy and full." He smiled to himself, blissfully unaware of the disturbed looks he was getting from the others. "That's how I'd want to die."

"That can be arranged," Deidara muttered slyly, ducking his head to avoid being whacked with Sasori's empty box of fries. "Meanie," the blond retorted, sticking his tongue out.

"I am not," the redhead told him.

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Are too!"

"Am not."

"Are too!!!"

"Aww, lovers' quarrel," Hidan cooed. Both artists turned simultaneously to glare at him.

If looks could kill, Hidan would probably be worshipping his god in person. He silently thanked Jashin, feeling that, if it weren't for his religious devotion, the sophomores probably would've murdered him by now.

Ignoring them, the senior decided to catch up on his reading, pulling out his new Death Note.

"We're all gonna die, un!" Deidara commented, roles swapped so now Hidan was the one glaring at him.

"I wasn't going to write any of _your _names down," he said, flipping through the list of rules.

"Just don't bring it to school," Konan said. "Remember that kid who got suspended last year for writing down someone's name in class?" **(1)**

"Which is exactly why I'm going to write down Asuma-sensei's name right in front of him."

"You want to get suspended?"

"Hell yeah! That's a whole week out of school."

Hidan grinned broadly at his proclamation, making it no small wonder why the senior was at risk of becoming a _super-_senior. He stuffed his face with noodles, causing the others to abandon any attempts at a rebuttal. Besides, the only thing keeping them in the food court was the fact Hidan was the only one who hadn't finished his lunch yet. In fact, with all his yelling and arguing, he'd barely even _touched_ it.

Eventually the Akatsuki gave up on their friend and made the decision to vacate the area, Hidan bringing along his to-go box for later.

They backtracked their earlier path through the mall, just incase they missed anything the first time around (Plus they still had some time to kill).

"Gamestop!" Tobi cheered, spotting the videogame store once again, and began to head towards it.

"Come on Tobi, we don't have time for that," Konan said.

He stopped to look at her. "But it's Gamestop! There's always time for Gamestop," he insisted and continued on his quest.

"Tobi!" Konan called out, but the freshman kept going. She groaned. "Does that kid have a videogame addiction or something?"

"I wouldn't be surprised if he did."

Hidan suddenly leaned into the conversation with a mischievous smirk. "On three, we ditch the newbie," he said and started the countdown. "One, two, THREE!" The Akatsuki took off running through the mall, laughing as they left Tobi to figure out that he was being left behind.

"Hey! Wait up!!!"

---------------------

After a little while they let Tobi catch up and regrouped in the parking lot, which, in that particular area, was mostly empty.

"Damn that was fun!" Hidan commented, easing himself out of the laughing fit he'd worked up while running. Konan pulled out her phone and checked the time on it while they collected themselves. "Okay guys, we need to start heading back before we're late."

"Aww," they grumbled.

"Wait, didn't we park on the opposite end?"

A few looks around the parking lot confirmed that Pain's black sports-car was nowhere in sight. The group allowed themselves a little longer to catch their breaths before embarking on the long journey to the other side of the mall, opting for a difference entrance.

"I'm surprised security didn't come after us or kick us out," Konan mused, regarding the door they'd just exited a short while ago as they passed it by.

"Probably didn't know what to think. We are a bit of a strange group, un."

"Or maybe they were afraid you'd blow them up," she giggled.

Deidara considered it and grinned. "That too."

----------

When they'd first arrived, the mall hadn't seemed that big, but now, returning to the car, it was taking forever just to reach the other end. Tobi amused himself by seeing how long it would take for him to piss Deidara off, quickly scampering over to cower behind Konan when he succeeded in his goal.

They took a slight detour to go up the escalator because they'd started their journey on the upper level and ended up on the lower one by the end of it. Tobi lagged behind, reaching out a foot to step down and immediately pulling it back when the next step would appear. Konan and Sasori, who had made it to the top by now, stood there and watched with mild interest, shaking their heads. The freshman finally got on when Deidara and Hidan came up from behind and shoved him forward.

"The escalator, my old nemesis," Tobi said after they'd reached the upper level, promptly retreating from the contraption once he was safely at the top. He eyed it down like a dangerous animal about to strike.

Konan gave him a blank stare. "Why?"

"Because I keep getting them mixed up. An escalator is this thing, the one that goes out, and an elevator is the one that goes up and down. Or does the escalator go up and down and the elevator go out?" He paused. "No, I was right before, escalator is up... wait.... I'm confusing myself."

"That's the _escalator._ It's basically moving stairs," Deidara explained.

"So it _does_ go up!"

Deidara smacked a palm to his forehead.

"Right?"

"You are hopeless!"

"But it's confusing!" he whined. "It's just as bad as stalactites and stalagmites."

Hidan cocked a pale eyebrow, a plan already forming in his head. "Tobi, I dare you to go down it," he said.

"Why?"

"Because... uh... it'll help you figure out the difference!" he lied.

"Really?!" The freshman looked at it, then looked back at the group, and back to the moving staircase. This repeated a few times until Tobi eventually shrugged and walked in that direction, stepping onto the device that immediately began to pull him downwards.

When his head was the only part of him visible on the upper level, Tobi looked over to catch the last few glimpses of his friends' feet running off to the other end of the mall.

"Not again!"

-----------

Deidara glanced over his shoulder. "Did we really lose him?"

"I don't know." They slowed their pace to a complete stop and watched the stretch of mall they'd left in their wake.

"I see him," Sasori commented as an exhausted freshman came bounding into their sights. He slowly reached the rest of the group, breath coming out in heavy, ragged pants.

"Stop. Doing. That." he gasped out, regaining his bearings.

Konan waited for him to catch his breath (And for Hidan to stop laughing) before she asked "What took you so long?"

"Well I had to wait for the darn thing to reach the bottom before I could switch over to the one that led up."

"You could've just walked back up it, un," Deidara muttered.

"But it was designed to bring people down, not up," Tobi explained.

Deidara shook his head. "But that doesn't mean you can't-," he stopped himself, remembering exactly who he was talking to. "Nevermind."

"But-"

"I said nevermind, un!" The blonde sighed, eyebrow twitching, and turned to Konan. "Can we go now? Before I strangle him."

"Go for it!" Hidan encouraged.

Ignoring that last remark, she answered. "Sure. At least that running got us to the parking lot." The quintet set off again to the double doors, exiting out into the crowded lot to find Pain's car.

One wouldn't realize exactly how difficult it is to search for a black sports-car in an ocean of automobiles until they had to do it themselves. After what seemed like an eternity, which in reality was roughly ten minutes, they finally found the president's car, parked conveniently between two large SUVs. Some fighting and struggling commenced in order to successfully get in without disturbing their current neighbors, but they managed to accomplish that feat with minor injuries sustained.

They'd gotten about halfway to Itachi's house when Konan heard a buzz emanate from within her purse.

"Deidara, can you get my phone for me?"

The blond, who had reclaimed the passenger's seat, shrugged and reached around inside the cavernous handbag to find the small device. Finally a hand enclosed around the ringing object and he pulled out.

Deidara let out a surprised yelp when something clipped his finger and quickly retreated, handing Konan her phone, who half released her grip on the steering wheel in order to accept it.

"Papercut," he grumbled as he examined the small, yet painfully irritating, wound. Konan laughed sheepishly and decided to answer whomever was calling her.

"Hello?" she greeted, eyes trained to the road. "Yeah, we're heading back now..... You know you already bought this stuff last week, and it's probably all still in the trunk." The blue haired girl laughed at the sound of a forehead being slapped. "I just said we're heading back... About halfway.... Why?"

Konan paused for a long while, an exasperated sigh escaping her lips. "Fine, but I'm not refilling the gas tank." She snapped the phone shut and lazily tossed it back into the purse. "Okay guys, change of plans," she informed them, taking the next left.

"What do you mean change of plans?"

"I mean, we've got a few stops to make before we head back to Itachi's. I'll explain on the way," Konan said as the car and the five teens inside of it bounded down a new path.

**------**

**Believe it or not, this chapter was based off of real life. My friends and I have an Akatsuki group and these 5 are the members we have right now (Cookies to whoever can guess who I am!). This is mostly an account of our adventure in the mall during Anime Weekend Atlanta (AWA), with a few additions/changes to fit the plot. Example: none of us have a car, we were just in the parking lot acting stupid.**

**(1) The kid who got suspended was actually Tobi, but since he's a freshman in this fic, I couldn't put that.**


	14. Sleepover!

**MAJOR writer's block on this chapter, combined with school and other stuff....but I finally got it out! sorry for the wait. Good news is that Momo-con's fast approaching, so I should be able to get some inspiration from that. **

------

"A SLEEP-OVER?!"

Pain, now changed back to his usual appearance, rubbed at his ears from the exaggerated response, glad he'd sent the loudest members of his group off with Konan. He knew that the others often didn't comprehend the genius of his planning, but the Akatsuki leader wasn't expecting them to react _this_ much.

Said leader coughed into his hand and waited for them to settle down. "It's not a sleepover, but more of an overnight-extended meeting," he explained.

"Sleep-over," Kisame repeated, looking away just in time to miss a glaring pair of gray eyes.

"All you need to know is that this meeting is going to take a while, so you're all stuck here for the night. I've already worked it out with Itachi."

"What about you little brother?" Kakuzu asked the raven.

"Spending the night with a friend to work on a science project." Pain visibly tensed as soon as the words 'science' and 'project' escaped his lips. "No magnets involved," Itachi added with a silent sigh.

"Well, in any case, you all need to pack up your stuff for the night, so I'll give you time to do that while we wait for the others to return."

"Why didn't you just tell us before the 'meeting'," insert air quotes here, "so we could get our stuff together then?"

"I have my reasons," he replied. In the language of Pain, reasons was a loose translation for the term, 'I forgot'. Kisame and Kakuzu both stared at him blankly, but their leader gestured for them to hurry up and go. They complied, though reluctantly, and exited out the front door, Kakuzu headed for the neighborhood across the street while Kisame left for a closer destination a few houses down.

Zetsu, in the meantime, silently watched the entire scene from underneath a potted tree Itachi kept in the living room for some reason.

The raven watched the two tall boys leave before his onyx eyes fell on the near-forgotten sophomore, the red lenses of his glasses flashing with the subtle movements of his head.

"He already informed you?" Itachi inquired, drawing Zetsu's attention from the confines of his mind. The green haired boy nodded, lazily pawing at a low hanging leaf in front of his face, seemingly at one with the plant. He went back to staring at the door, like it would burst into flames at any moment, until Kisame emerged from the other side, bag in tow. Kakuzu followed a little while later.

"So, now what?" Kakuzu asked once the five of them were assembled in the living room once more.

Pain answered. "We wait."

-------

Konan deeply regretted being stuck in a car with those particular people when she had to relay the change of plans to them. Not only were they some of the loudest members of Akatsuki, but the small dimensions of the vehicle compacted the outburst into one space.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Konan suspected that Pain knew this would happen and was getting back at her for criticizing his last plan so much.

"Hey don't look at me. I have nothing to do with his schemes," she commented. "I just have to listen to them." She sighed and glanced at her passengers through the rear-view mirror. "Since you guys live a little ways away," this was directed to Sasori and Deidara, "and no one knows where you live Tobi, Pain asked me to drive you guys home so you can tell your parents what's going on and pack whatever you need."

"But I live in the same fucking neighborhood as Kakuzu, so why'd I get stuck with you losers?" Hidan asked.

"I think Leader just wanted to get rid of you," Sasori answered. Hidan's face flushed with anger and the car didn't experience a moment of silence until they reached their fist destination.

Konan pulled into a small subdivision and parked next to the sidewalk. She unlocked the car doors, allowing the two artists to exit onto the walkway and head away from the automobile to their respective houses.

"Hurry back!" she called, receiving a lazy wave from Sasori. "And Deidara..."

The blond turned around. "Hai?"

"No explosives."

"Aw..."

-----------

The duo soon returned, both with bags stuffed with whatever they had chosen to bring to the 'sleep-over' (Deidara's was suspiciously bigger than Sasori's, but they chose not to question the blond about it). Before pulling over, Konan twisted around in her seat in order to speak to Tobi.

"Tobi, I need to know where you live now so I can drive over there," she informed him.

"Actually, my house isn't too far from here," Tobi remarked.

"Oh joy, un," Deidara commented with a dry sarcasm to his tone.

"_Anyway, _can you give me the directions?"

He nodded with a smile and instructed Konan on the route to reach his house, but not without getting them turned around and lost and few times. When they finally reached the destination, Tobi practical leaped over Sasori to get out of the car before Hidan could strangle him for the poor directions. When he returned, Tobi negotiated with the redhead and eventually got him to take the middle seat in order to get away from the murderous Hidan. Deidara, glad he'd called shotgun early on, snickered from the passenger's seat, safely out of Hidan's reach (although he now had to deal with Tobi being directly behind him, which was probably just as bad). One final stop was made for Hidan before the car finally pulled into Itachi's driveway, ending the quintet's long, long journey.

At the door they were greeted, more or less, by Pain, who gave them each an acknowledging nod, which was blown off for the most part, with the exception of Tobi's overly enthusiastic wave. Konan brought up the rear, dumping the keys into Pain's awaiting palm.

"Just so you know, _you're_ filling up the tank," she stated and went to sit on the couch next to a dango equipped Itachi. The raven glanced at her and went back to munching on the sweet dumplings.

"So, _leader_," Hidan snidely remarking as he dropped himself onto the far end of the sofa, "why are we snuck here for the night." He reached his foot forward and poked at Deidara, who was sitting on the floor in front of him.

"Because, Hidan, I have several ideas I need to run by you all, and it may take a while. Plus I feel like we don't work together as well as we should." The Akatsuki exchanged glances with each other. "It'll also give the newbie time to get to know you all. Think of it as bonding time," he said, beckoning Itachi forth, who reluctantly relinquished his spot on the couch. The auburn-haired leader whispered something to him and Itachi nodded, chewing on the now empty dango stick. He disappeared upstairs and returned with a Wii tangled in its own cords and a bag presumably filled with games.

"We're playing games?"

"Well, if we're gonna be here all night, why not have some fun?" Pain replied. They cheered and the raven put the Wii down to move the television and its stand so he could get behind them. Almost immediately the wires that were shoved behind there leaped out to attack him and Itachi had to wrestle them back into place.

Deidara shifted in his seat, watching Itachi tediously attempt to navigate through the maze of cords and wires behind the entertainment unit. "Can we do something while we wait, un?"

"And what would you suggest, Deidara?"

The blond thought for a moment. "Let's tell scary stories!"

They stared blankly at him.

"Fine. I'll start then, un. Okay.... your walking through the woods on a calm, sunny day. As you walk you start to notice the ground getting softer and softer. When you look down, the solid dirt path has been covered in sand, and there's not a beach or desert for miles.

Suddenly it goes dark! You look up and the sun is being blocked by a huge monster made entirely out of sand. Looking closer you realize its not just a monster, but a demonic raccoon!"

"Raccoon?!"

"Danna! Don't interrupt my story!" The redhead snorted at him. "Anyway, the monster attacks. It turns its arm into sand and launches at you. You try to run, but the beast manages to ensnare your arm. Then, the sand constricts with a powerful amount of force until your arm is torn from your body!"

Sasori sighed. "Really Deidara?"

"What, un? What's wrong with my story?"

"Its not the story I'm concerned with," he mumbled. The blond cocked his head in confusion, leading to another sigh from his friend. "Your monster is a giant raccoon..."

"A giant _sand_ raccoon," he corrected.

"Does this have anything to do with what happened yesterday?"

"...maybe..." The redhead shook his head. "Then you come up with a better monster Danna!"

"No."

"I'll do it!" Hidan interjected and all ears were on him. "How about a demon cat, but its made of blue fire!"

"How is that better than a sand raccoon, un?!"

"Because this bastard can _burn_ you to death. Who gives a damn about loosing a fucking arm?"

"If the sand gets over your head, it could decapitate you," Kisame offered.

"Ha! Decapitation's nothing. It's too quick and painless. Burning makes the victim suffer and beg for death."

"But why a flaming cat?" the junior questioned.

"Why not? Cats are evil little fuckers."

"Maybe we should all just come up with our own monsters, un," Deidara suggested. The group shrugged. They had nothing better to do anyway. "Starting with Danna, because he weaseled his way out of it the first time. Uh, no offense Itachi."

"Hn," the Uchiha commented, continuing what he was doing.

Sasori, in the meantime, decided there was no getting out of it now and gave in. "Alright. A monster with a human form, but its figure is hunched over. A huge mask covers its back with a long scorpion tail coming out of the mouth, poison dripping off of the stinger."

Deidara blinked. "Hiruko?"

"Yes Deidara, Hiruko."

"What's Hiruko?" Tobi asked.

"A really creepy puppet he made, un."

"He's not creepy..."

"Oh..." Tobi said. "Okay, my turn! I remember this really scary monster I saw in a dream once. It was like a giant turtle with claws and fangs and it was chasing me across a lake!"

Only Hidan had a comment for that.

"Who's afraid of a fucking turtle?!"

"But it was enormous! Bigger than a house....and it had three tails," he added in last minute. "Three _dragon_ tails."

"Oh yeah, my cat has two tails!"

"I think Deidara's raccoon is scarier than that..." Kakuzu commented, ignoring Hidan's statement.

"Hey! Raccoons are very scary, and evil." _Just like redheads_, he said in his mind, taking a glance at the redhead sitting right next to him and looking away before he noticed.

"Uh, I think I'll just go now," Kisame announced, trying to get things moving again. "My monster's a shark that cuts you to ribbons with it's razor sharp teeth as well as it's rough scales. And it can feed off of your energy."

Hidan laughed. "Leave it to fish-boy to use a shark."

"Better a shark than a cat," he muttered, but Hidan didn't catch that bit. "Hey, Itachi, why don't you go?"

Itachi looked up from his current task, dango stick poking out of one side of his mouth and a cord wedged between his lips, the plug swinging uselessly under his chin. "Kyuubi," the raven mumbled around the obstructions and went back to work, quickly dousing any and all attempts to ask him for further details, so they moved on to the next victim.

"Kakuzu!" Hidan exclaimed, nudging the taller male in the ribs. "You haven't gone yet."

"And I don't plan to," he grumbled. "There's no benefit for me in participating, so why should I?"

"Hidan'll shut up if you do," Deidara told him.

"What? No I-" the blond slapped a hand over the gaping mouth, dragging Hidan to the floor in the process. He then turned to Kakuzu and gave him an innocent, if not forced, grin.

The taller boy raised an eyebrow.

"You should go Kakuzu," Kisame urged. "We wanna hear what you come up with."

With a defeated sigh, Kakuzu crossed his arms in thought. "A bull..." he decided on after a while "with the tentacles of an octopus." He looked around at everyone's reactions, then decided to clarify for the sake of ridding them of their confused expressions. "Having extra limbs would be very efficient, it could kill more victims at once. Time _is_ money after all."

"Bullshit! Th-mmph!" Deidara forced him to silence once more and let out a nervous chuckle as he pounded on the albino's head, hoping to beat some sense into the dense skull (or beat him senseless, whichever came first). Kakuzu smiled under his scarf, enjoying his classmate's misery as much as he was enjoying his sudden muteness.

"You're turn, Konan," the tall senior said.

"Me?" she asked in surprise. "I'm really not sure. Maybe some kind of shape-shifting monster, or something that incorporates several different creatures. What about you, Pain?" Konan asked, playfully nudging her old friend.

"There is no creature that could compare to the might of a god," he announced, a strange look flickering in his gray eyes.

Konan sighed. "Should've known..."

"As long as that god is Jashin-sama, I have no argument," Hidan blurted out before he was once again silenced by his blond friend.

"Deidara, you know you don't have to keep him quiet anymore, right?" Kisame said.

"I know, it's just fun," he replied just as Itachi let out an audible sigh. The raven pulled out from behind the Tv and pushed it back into place.

"All set up," he said, pulling away. His glasses had been knocked partially off his face and he'd lost his dango stick, but at least he'd won the battle against the evil cords.

"Really?" Deidara exclaimed, temporarily forgetting about Hidan, who took the valuable opportunity to scramble back to the safety of the sofa.

"Yeah," he muttered, adjusting his glasses and reclaiming his seat.

"Then," Pain said, picking up a Wiimote and turning the system on, "let the games begin."

----------

**Lol, Pain is such a dork.**

**About the moonsters: For some members I couldn't use their assigned Bijuu, so here's some clarification as to why I did what I did .**

**-----Sanbi was probably Sasori's target before he died (T_T), since Tobi was given that assignment, so I settled on using Hiruko. He'd be more prone to talk about one of his puppets anyway.**

**-----I couldn't use Yonbi for Kisame because they only showed what the jinchuuriki looked like, so I described an animalized version of Samehada.**

**-----Kakuzu's target would've been Hachibi had he survived. They had 7 bijuu captured, and four of those were shown (Deidara, Tobi, Hidan, and Kisame). The other three were probably caught by Pain, Konan, and Zetsu, while Itachi was assigned to Kyuubi, which only leaves Sasori and Kakuzu, and I already explained my theory on Sasori.**

**-----I have no clue which Bijuu Pain, Konan, and Zetsu were assigned to or what they even look like, so I just picked something relating to each one of them (although I completely blanked on Konan)**


	15. Games

**I really wanted to get out a bunch of chapters over summer break, but no ideas were coming. I guess I get my inspiration from the randomness of my friends, and I didn't see them over the break. So there'll probably be more updates now that school's back in.**

**-----------**

In hindsight, the Akatsuki realized, maybe pitting Deidara against Itachi in Wii Sports wasn't the greatest idea ever. They of course knew about his competitive streak towards the raven, but everyone had forgotten just how competitive Deidara could get. After Tobi had nearly been punched out during the boxing round, though it was entirely his fault for getting too close, the others decided to intervene. Naming Deidara the unofficial winner of their 'tournament' in order to keep him satisfied (Itachi could've cared less over the outcome), the two were quickly relieved of their Wiimotes and instructed to sit quietly on the sidelines and let someone else have a turn.

The blond, while following the sidelines part of the bargain, didn't embrace the quiet clause. Itachi, who had quiet down pact, proceeded to kick Hidan out of the couch's rightmost seat, which was the Uchiha's official 'spot' (He had documented proof to back it up, signed and dated). They were then able to continue along peacefully.

Peacefully, by Akatsuki standards, involved yelling, arguing, and minor bodily harm.

When it was clear the game had long since been forgotten amongst the chaos that was their club, Pain stepped in. Assembling the nine teens in a circle on the floor, first making sure they were going to stay put, he excused himself to prepare the next 'disguise' he was working on. However, before the leader made his exit, he left them with three parting words:

"Truth or dare."

"Anyone want to go first?" Konan asked once the room had calmed down, a common scene whenever Pain sprung a new idea or plan onto the group.

"I do!" Hidan replied with a manic grin. The white-haired teen had plans for the most embarrassing things he could make his fellow Akatsuki members do if they, hopefully, picked dare. And even if they went the safe route, there were a few questions he'd been _dying_ to ask, ones that, under normal circumstances, they'd never answer.

Violet eyes scanned the room to search for his first target, deranged snickers slipping out of his throat. Tobi, who had the misfortune of being right next to the senior, adopted a distressed expression and slowly shied away from Hidan in an attempt to go unnoticed by him. His plan failed and Hidan's gaze locked right onto the newbie.

His grin widened. _Perfect._

"Truth or dare Tobi?"

"T-truth," he muttered out, fearing the kinds of horrors that Hidan's dares would bring.

Hidan frowned. "You're no fucking fun." He sighed. "Fine. What do you keep hidden under those damn bandages?"

"My left eye," he replied.

"Damnit I know that! That's not what I meant!"

"He already answered your question, Hidan," Kakuzu calmly stated from his other side.

"But that wasn't the answer I wanted!"

Deidara laughed. "Outsmarted by the n00b, un."

"Fuck you, blondie."

"Is it my turn now?" Tobi asked, looking at Hidan. He scowled at the younger male and tossed him a gesture that said 'whatever'. Tobi smiled brightly. "Now, let's see…"

_Don't pick me. Don't pick me. Don't pick me. Don't pick me._ Deidara chanted repeatedly in his head.

"Zetsu."

_Yes! _He mentally cheered.

The green haired boy suddenly snapped to attention after spacing out during the first few minutes of the game.

"Truth or dare?"

He contemplated for a moment. "Truth. No wait, dare. No, Truth!" Zetsu fought with himself over the decision. "Truth," he finally picked.

"You people are boring!" Hidan yelled.

"Um, okay. Are you half plant?"

Zetsu blinked, surprised. "What?"

"In the car Hidan said 'Zetsu must be part plant because he doesn't do a thing and his hair's green' and I wanna know if it's true."

"No, I said 'he doesn't do a _damn_ thing and his hair's _fucking_ green'," Hidan corrected. "Don't paraphrase me."

"But I don't swear…"

"I'm not a plant," Zetsu replied in response to Tobi's question, glaring at the white-haired upperclassman.

Hidan averted his eyes. "Uh, can we just get on with the fucking game?"

He frowned. "Fine. I pick Kisame."

The shark-like junior grinned. "Dare."

"Finally!" Hidan interjected.

Zetsu sat there, thinking of a good dare to give Kisame. His yellow eyes analyzed the room carefully before falling on the door that Pain had disappeared behind.

He smiled. "I dare you to barge in on Leader."

The room let out a series of hushed whispers, but Kisame was undaunted by the issued challenge.

"Easy," he replied with confidence and stood, preparing to enter dangerous waters. He boldly stepped up to the door and flung it open, shutting it behind him as he stepped through. Everyone was dead quiet as they tried to listen in.

"Out!" came a loud bark and a few seconds later Kisame was flying back into the den, the door slamming shut with his exit. With a hardy chuckle he took his seat between Itachi and Kakuzu.

"So, what's he doing?" Kakuzu asked.

Kisame shrugged. "I don't know. He kicked me out before I could get a good look. Anyway, it's my turn now. Truth or dare, Deidara?"

"Truth, un," he mumbled. Ever since they'd forced him into a dress and paraded him through the mall, he didn't do dares anymore. Not that Itachi would have a dress in his house or Konan would have a spare one on hand, but it was better not to take any chances.

"How many times a day do you get mistaken for a woman?"

The blond turned red. "Nevermind!"

"Just answer the question, Deidara," Sasori told him.

Scowling at the floor, he grumbled "Two… or three," in response. Kisame and Hidan broke out in howling laughter. "It's not funny, un!"

Sasori patted his back. "There, there. It's not that bad."

Deidara stuck his tongue out at the redhead. "Just for that, I'm calling you next." Sasori shrugged. "Truth or dare?"

"Dare. And you can't dare me to agree with you about art," he finished.

The blond frowned. "You know me too well. Hidan, you're good at dares. Come up with one for him, un."

Sasori turned his attention from blond hair to white. Cocking an eyebrow, he gave Hidan a smug smirk.

The senior seethed at the unspoken challenge. "Oh, I've got one you bastard. I dare you to kiss Deidara!"

If anyone had been drinking something at the time, there would've been a spit-take.

"Wait what?!" Deidara exclaimed, eyes wide.

"You heard me." He folded his arms, smirked. "And it has to be on the lips, no fucking cop-outs."

Sasori rolled his muddy eyes and pulled the startled blond towards him, placing a quick, almost non-existent peck on his lips before returning to his original position.

"Konan, truth or dare?" the redhead asked blandly while a now flustered blond tried to make sense of what just happened.

"Dare," the blue-haired female replied, giggling at Deidara's facial expression.

"I dare you to lock Leader's keys inside his car."

"Oooo," the Akatsuki chorused, surprised at the boldness of Sasori's request. Touching Pain's keys and/or car, unless given permission, was a major offense.

"Is that all?" she questioned, rolling her eyes at the dramatics of her club mates.

"Scared?" Sasori taunted. Konan smirked at him and went over to Pain's black trench coat, which was hung up on the coat rack by the door. She reached into the pocket and pulled out a set of keys hanging off a cloud-shaped keychain. She disappeared out the front door.

"Are you sure about this, Sasori?' Kakuzu asked. "You know how he is about his car."

"I wanna see how he reacts. Besides, Leader's not going to do a thing to Konan," he assured the dark-skinned teen.

The eight males were silent after that, listening for the definite 'click' of a locking car door. It was faint, but they did hear it, flowed shortly by Konan's reappearance. She held up open palms, showing that she hadn't brought the keys with her, and reclaimed her seat.

"Happy now?" she asked of the boys, not waiting for a response. "Alright Itachi, tr-"

The blue-haired girl had just started to continue with the game when Pain burst through the door with distressed eyes.

"Did I hear a car door lock?!"

Silence.

Pain truly looked like a madman at the moment. The long orange hair of his next 'disguise', as he was calling it, was disheveled and the wig seemed to be gradually sliding off his normally spiked hair. The piercings on the left side of his face were the same as before, but had been rearranged on the right, giving him an asymmetrical appearance.

Aware of the blank and, in some cases, disturbed, looks he was receiving, Pain coughed into his hand, trying to restore his collected image.

"I'll just go now," he announced and slipped into the back, slamming the door behind him.

"That… was weird."

"Actually that's pretty common behavior for him," Konan replied. "Now, truth or dare, Itachi?"

"Truth," the brunet answered in a bland tone that rivaled Sasori's.

"Where was your little brother at our last OOS meeting?" Itachi visibly tensed at the question.

Usually when the Akatsuki met at Itachi's house his younger brother, Sasuke, would be in his room pretending the high schoolers didn't exist or 'skulking about the neighborhood' as Itachi put it. Last time, however, Sasuke was nowhere to be found. When questioned about the whereabouts of the younger Uchiha, Itachi answered with a suspicious 'around' and remained silent about the matter. He also refused to answer any calls directed to either the house phone or his cell that day.

"Well?" the girl pressed, curious as to what the raven was hiding.

"I… tipped off a few of his fangirls that'd he'd be at the mall and let them chase him around for a few hours…" Itachi murmured, a little red in the face (though not as red as Deidara, who was still recovering from his earlier shock). Itachi shifted awkwardly, realizing that all eyes were on him now. "It was his punishment for neglecting his chores," the raven explained.

"Sorry I asked," Konan muttered, glad that Sasuke was absent that night, for legitimate reasons this time around.

"Truth or dare Kakuzu," Itachi asked, eager to turn attention away from himself.

"Dare," the taller male chose.

Without skipping a beat, Itachi voiced his dare. "I dare you to give me twenty dollars."

"Hell no!" Kakuzu snapped, also without skipping a beat.

"Too late, I already dared you." Grumbling Kakuzu reached into his pocket and pulled out the value Itachi requested, glaring viciously at the raven as he handed it over.

Seeking an outlet for his frustration, the senior turned to the only one who hadn't gone yet.

"Hidan, I dare you to-"

"The hell?! Don't I get to choose?" he snapped.

"No," Kakuzu told him.

"Bastard."

"I dare you to go the rest of the night without swearing and, if you fail, you owe me forty bucks."

"What the fuck?!" Hidan barked and pointed an accusing finger at Itachi. "He only took twenty from you!"

"You lose, fork it over."

The zealot tensed, realizing his costly blunder. "W-wait! I didn't agree to any of this." Kakuzu wordlessly put out an outstretched palm in front of Hidan, who smacked it away. "Like I'd even bring my wallet with you around you fucking pick-pocket."

Tobi felt a sudden urge to verify if the extra money he kept hidden in his hat was still there.

Kakuzu leaned towards Hidan and gave him the stare that could make a plain out of a mountain.

"You'll get your money, alright!" the paler of the two snapped, forcing the other away from him. "Just not now."

The Akatsuki sat in silence after that, all turns now taken.

"So… now what?"

Hidan spoke. "We could start o-" Kakuzu gave him a silencing nudge to the ribs.

Thankfully they didn't need to suffer the quiet for very long as Pain sauntered in. He'd obviously put himself together since his last, brief appearance. The longhaired wig he was sporting was properly fitted, reaching down to the middle of his back. Stud-like piercings framed his jawline with a diagonal bar running through the nose.

Already bored after the first change of appearance their president did, the Akatsuki paid little attention to him this time around. Pain circled around oval they'd formed in the den and forced himself between Konan and Itachi, as if he disapproved of their close proximity. He said nothing, but sat and folded his hands in his lap, staring at the person opposite to him (who happened to be Tobi).

"Hey leader, play Truth or Dare with us!" the aforementioned Tobi requested.

Pain snorted. "Why would I partake in such a silly party game?"

"It was your idea," Konan pointed out, giving him the 'I-will-tell-them-all-the-embarrassing-things-that-you wish-to-keep-secret-because-they-would-undermine-your-authority-unless-you-agree-to-play' look.

He sighed. "Truth."

Tobi grinned widely at the prospect of continuing the game, blissfully unaware of Konan's silent manipulation of their leader. "Um…"

"Wait Tobi," the bluenette interrupted. "I have one. What is with all of these costume changes you keep going through?"

"Maybe he's auditioning for a Vegas show," Kisame offered.

Pain coughed into his hand, but not before glaring at the bad joke. "I was hoping to save that detail for later, but you leave me no choice. It's our new message system."

"Message system?"

"Yes. Instead of sending a chain message between members that could be intercepted or overheard anytime we have plans, I'll simply appear before you all with these different looks. A certain one will signify an OOS meeting, another to meet afterschool, or carry out a plan, lay low, et cetera."

Admittedly, the Akatsuki realized to themselves, it was a good concept, albeit an odd execution. Many of the members learned that they were meeting after school not from each other, but from chatty females that stalked certain members of the secret club, usually keeping tabs on the locations of their respective crushes every moment they were at school. With Pain's unorthodox strategy in place, their whereabouts would remain secret (and, if nothing else, it would cut back on the stalking).

Konan smiled appreciatively at him. "Your plans really are brilliant Pain, if one can ignore how insane they usually are."

"Thank you," he beamed, and then faltered. "Wait…"

A phone rang and Itachi stood to answer it, first checking the caller ID.

"Hello Sasuke," he said in an exasperated tone upon lifting the device from the receiver. "No, I can't come get you, you have a project to finish."

A pause followed. "Its not my fault that you picked a friend who irritates you. If you know he gets hyper easily, you shouldn't have let him eat sugar. No, you can't kill him." Another long pause came and Itachi removed the phone from his ear for a few seconds. "Bye little brother," he grumbled into the speaker and hung up.

Pain suddenly stood and clapped his hands together. "Well, now seems like a good time retire downstairs. Itachi, if you would kindly lead the way."

The raven, who was currently glaring at the phone, blandly stared up at Pain before beckoning everyone towards the stairway, opening a door that revealed the hidden entrance to the basement.

The group gathered their things and traversed down the upholstered steps into Itachi's basement, which had long since been modified to serve as a secondary living room. The Akatsuki usually held their longer OOS meeting in this spare room because it was roomier than the den and better suited for entertaining nine teenagers for long periods of time.

Itachi busied himself turning on the lights downstairs and making sure the ones upstairs were now off as Pain checked the general set up of the room, a little put out at how the leader was taking over his household. He walked over to the pierced man who was now pushing several boxes into the corner to make more room. A small box stacked on top of the pile suddenly teetered and fell to the floor. Pain froze as its contents revealed themselves.

Itachi leaned forward to investigate. He'd completely forgotten that they'd stored Sasuke's old electromagnet project down there. The leader obviously still had bad memories of his encounter with said project so Itachi repacked it and hid the box away in a closet. Pain muttered embarrassed thanks and decided to go back to something he was good at: ordering people around.

After instructing everyone to find a way to occupy themselves without destroying the house (Because Itachi would not appreciate that and he'd probably kill them all slowly and painfully if they did) Pain went back upstairs to prepare another look for the new message system, but not without tripping while going up the unlighted steps. They heard the unmistakable thud when he fell, but resisted the strong urge to break out laughing. Doing so would probably cause him to come back and find some way to punish them for laughing, so they stayed silent until they were sure he was gone.

Hidan suddenly spoke, a vicious grin on his face. "So, who wants to pull a prank on Leader?"

--------------

**My biggest issue with this chapter was coming up with dares/truths for everyone. Some might not be the most original (ie Deidara, Kakuzu, Hidan, and, to an extent, Sasori), but they're things they'd ask each other (also, Kisame's dare was originally going to be Konan's, but as Sasori said, Pain won't do anything to her, so it wouldn't have gone anywhere from there).**

**For the record, this is how they're sitting, going clockwise: Hidan-Kakuzu-Kisame-Itachi-(Pain, when he comes in)-Konan-Sasori-Deidara-Zetsu-Tobi **


End file.
